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LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. J 
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UNITED STATES OP AMERICA.! 



SERMONS 



PUBLIC WORSHIP, 



SUITED TO THE TIMES. 



BY SAMUEL NOTT, Jr., 

Author of " Sermons from the Fowls of the Air and Lilies of the Field.' 



BOSTON: 
TAPPAN & DENNET, 

114 Washington Street. 

1843. 



^1 



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Entered according to act of Congress, in the year 1840, 
Br WHIPPLE & DAMRELL. 

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. 



DEDICATION. 



TO THE REY. SAMUEL NOTT, D. D. 



FRANKLIN, CONN. 

My earliest and sweetest recollections are of my 
native hill, and of the pathway to the house of God, 
and of our way thither, and our blessings there, with 
those numbered with the dead and with the just 
made perfect — meeting the multitude who came 
Sabbath after Sabbath to worship God. Whatever 
blessings I have found in the house of prayer for all 
people; have ever seemed to flow from the sanctuary 
of my childhood and youth ; from under that serene 
sky, amidst that beautiful landscape, on those 
summer Sabbaths, "carried into the week," if, as 
we used to pray, they were. I am ready to believe 
that the memory and the vision will never die ; that 
the streams will never cease. 



IV DEDICATION. 

To you, therefore, not only as a patriarch in the 
Lord's house, but as the minister of Franklin for 
nearly fifty-nine years, this work, intended to exalt 
Public Worship to its due place in the minds of men, 
and which takes its rise from the sanctuary of 
my childhood and youth, is most fitly dedicated, 
with every sentiment of filial affection. and reverence, 
by 

Your Son, 

Samuel Nott, Jr. 

Wareham, Mass., Nov. 30, 1840. 



PREFACE. 



The methods, to be relied on for the extension and 
establishment of Christianity on the earth, must be per- 
manent and all-pervading; such as meet the first dawn of 
thought, and accompany the whole discipline of life ; and 
such as can overspread communities and fill the whole 
world. Temporary and limited expedients, however prom- 
ising they may seem at the time and place, carry with 
them the principle of their own disappointment. Happy, 
if disappointment bring us to value and welcome those 
which are permanent and all-pervading. 

Such are public worship and the family, coeval with 
the race; the earliest institutions of Heaven for the welfare 
of men, fitted to each stage of divine mercy, and unfolding 
their capabilities still more and more at every advance- 
ment. We have nothing to invent — nothing to discover. 
The perfect methods are ready to our hands ; we shall do 
our utmost for the extension and establishment of Chris- 
tianity when we faithfully employ them along our whole 
path of discipline, amidst the chances and changes of 
humanity. We shall be fully blessed only out of Zion, 
and see our children's children, and peace upon Israel. 
1* 



VI PREFACE. 

The author has already applied himself to the Family, 
in his " Sermons for Children, designed to promote their 
immediate piety." The third volume, under the special 
title of "Religious Scenes," recognized the family as con- 
nected with public worship ; and, though at the distance of 
many years, may be regarded as the precursor of the present 
work. 

The author's last publication, adapting itself to the 
commercial crisis of 1834, or, as may now be claimed, to 
years of pecuniary embarrassment, did but attempt to ex- 
press the " Lessons of Faith beside the common path of 
life," which our Saviour bids us receive from " the fowls 
of the air, and the lilies of the field." The present volume 
is its proper counterpart, exalting the great public insti- 
tution, which sustains and cherishes the discipline of 
common life — which gives the form and the power by 
which the whole path of life becomes a discipline for 
holiness — the wide world an open temple for the Lord ; 
and all time the season for his worship. They best 
meet their daily opportunity, who wait best in the courts 
of the Lord. "Passing through the valley of Baca, they 
make it a well." The author trusts that those who 
welcomed the " Lessons of Faith beside the common 
path of life," will receive as its companion, these Les- 
sons of the Sanctuary; and that wherever "Sermons 
on Public Worship " find favor, they will win an audience 
for " Sermons from the Fowls of the Air and the 
Lilies of the Field." 

For the present work, then, certainly if he have any 
reason for publishing it at all, the author asks a welcome 
from the officers of public worship, and from the multitude, 
attendants or absentees, in every town, and village, and 
city in the land ; he would be almost bold enough to say 
in the wide world. And why not 1 when he endeavors to 



PREFACE. Vll 

invigorate and exalt that great institution, which, like the 
Sabbath, " was made for man." Why not? when he but 
prompts and joins the mutual urgency of man on man, by 
which the whole earth will at length flow unto the Lord's 
house; when he but prompts and urges the method of 
the last days ; " Come ye and let us go up to the moun- 
tain of the Lord; to the house of the God of Jacob, and he 
will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." 
And yet this work is as local and special as possible. 
With the widest possible design, the author begins at 
home, in connection with the actual state, and circum- 
stances, and scenery of his own town's people; suiting 
himself to one time and place, that he may be the better 
suited to all. Nor this without the highest examples. The 
divine wisdom gives, in special cases and in local instances, 
its lessons to the world. The books of Deuteronomy and 
Hosea, of Corinthians and Ephesians — the discourses of 
our Lord and his apostles, were adjusted centuries ago, 
how minutely, to the places, and the people, and the times 
" that then were," and thus, best fitted to all places, and all 
people, and all times. The more local, the more charac- 
teristic, the more seemingly ephemeral, the more have 
they proved applicable to every place, and people, and 
time, and emergency, for thousands of years, and over the 
wide world. " Now all these things happened unto them 
for ensamples, and they are written for our admonition, 
upon whom the ends of the world are come." Would that 
the author could imitate, in the humblest degree, the nice 
discernment, the exact application, the graphic description 
of the sacred models. Then should the urgency of a single 
township in the " Old Colony " apply itself to the ten 
thousand communities to which it is now offered. If in 
any degree we have suited our work to our own two 
thousand, it can suit itself to millions. 



Vlll PREFACE. 

Of course the work retains its original form — the form 
of the time and place of our original urgency — of public 
sermons ; and again we ask, why not 1 Why not urge to 
public worship, in the forms of public worship ? Why not 
make religious communications in their own peculiar and 
official forms? Alas, the question here asked, as if it 
admitted no answer, has been answered again and again 
in our ears, " Because the public consider sermons dull !" 
Sermons dull ! These sermons may be dull, or those — but 
not because they are sermons. They may be dull, if they 
proceed from minds which can prompt nothing but dulness 
in any form; and they may seem dull, though they are not, 
to minds utterly benumbed; but nothing can be more 
vivid, as nothing can be more characteristic and rich, than 
the true sermon. An address to a multitude of human 
beings on what touches their own business and bosoms for 
time and eternity, and connected with the whole history 
and relations of man, dull ! No form of human composi- 
tion, and no purpose admits larger and richer illustrations 
from all nature and history ; none draws more deeply upon 
all the fountains of feeling in the human heart; none 
applies itself more aptly to all the experiences of men, to 
"the chances and changes of humanity;" none is more 
fraught with all the treasures of poetry and eloquence, of 
beauty and sublimity. . . . Strange, that with the finest of all 
forms, officially its own, the pulpit should retire from the 
press ; and that an age clamorous from every other quar- 
ter, should find the clergy officially silent, on the broad 
field of society. Nevertheless, the unpopularity of print- 
ed sermons in America cannot be denied ; and the 
American pulpit must be in this dilemma ; either American 
sermons are not worthy to be read — are not deeply inter- 
esting and instructive — contain nothing worthy of review ; 
or the community which hears living and life-giving dis- 



PREFACE. IX 

courses, are as dull thereafter as the walls which heard 
not ; and they who have claimed a peculiar excellence for 
the American pulpit, are confuted by American indiffer- 
ence to printed sermons. Let who will decide the alterna- 
tive. Be it as it may, the true sermon is not, cannot be 
dull ; no more from the press than the pulpit : no more in 
the private closet than in the public sanctuary. 



The sixteenth, seventeenth, and nineteenth sermons were 
delivered in substance before the General Association 
of Massachusetts, at their session at Plymouth, June 
27, 1837. In commending, as he ought, this volume to 
the Clergy, the author cannot do better than to transfer 
to this preface the passages appropriate to that occasion. 

" No subject can be more appropriate to the present 
occasion, when, from all parts of this Commonwealth, and 
indeed from all parts of the land, the officers of the Lord's 
house are met in their annual convocation, to remember 
their Master, in that special act by which he rent the vail, 
and opened the holy place, and made his house a house of 
prayer for all people; when they are met to receive his 
pledge of aid, and to give their pledge of service, in gath- 
ering all people to him, ' who gathereth the outcasts of 
Israel.' I cannot aim at a higher purpose than to dismiss 
this assembly of the officers of public worship, with a 
deeper sense of the importance of the services they have 
in charge ; with a more studious care to conform those 
services to the inspired pattern of worship and of doctrine ; 
less inclined to substitutes of human invention ; more 
firmly trusting in the chief means of grace ; and more 
entirely resolved to give utmost scope to the triumphant 
institution of the last days. . . . Thus would I fulfil in a 
place and way contrary to all my youthful expectations, 



X PREFACE. 

whatever pledge in behalf of the universal spread of the 
gospel I made with my companions before this body, at 
Bradford, June 27, 1810, twenty-nine years ago this day; 
thus would I make my age true to the principles and pur- 
poses of my youth ; and my spared life true to those de- 
parted fathers and brethren who have left their unfinished 
labors on the hands of the living. Give me your prayers, 
that he who prospered the feeble effort of that day, will 
aid our present weakness to contribute to the prophetic 
vision, to the exaltation of the Lord's house, and the flow 
of all nations unto it 

" The officers, too — not with the pride or self-interest 
of office, but in the meekness and kindness of their Master, 
must exalt to their due importance the services they have 
in charge ; must ' know how they ought to behave them- 
selves in the house of God ;' not so servants of all work 
as to become workmen in the temple that need to be 
ashamed ; not so working out of season, as to be incapable 
of due work in season ; not so addicted to extraordinary 
exertions, as to be either incompetent or disinclined to be 
' steadfast, immovable, and always abounding in the 
work of the Lord.' They greatly mistake their behaviour 
in God's house, who, by services extra official, waste their 
vigor and capacity for those which are official ; who 
become listless and incapable of the work which God has 
appointed, by over-doing in the appointments of man ; or 
who sacrifice to the excitement and pressure of a score of 
days, or weeks, or months, their duty in the Lord's house 
for a score or scores of years ; and who, while they destroy 
or mar their own entrustment, degrade the divine institu- 
tion in the minds of men. 

"A word here, to prevent mistake as to principles of 
usefulness. Nothing is more plain than that all men, and, 
above all, the appointed and pledged officers of the Lord's 



PREFACE. XI 

house, owe to their Master their whole time, and talents, 
and strength. He has no title to the sacred office, who 
adopts any lower principle. But this, instead of excluding 
sleep, and rest, and relaxation, and quiet, and regularity, and 
method, includes them ; instead of including irregularity, 
inconstancy, over-action, excludes them. The true way 
to be useful, to be most useful, is to sleep in the hours of 
sleep — to rest in the season of rest — to regulate life 
according to the weakness of our nature, according to the 
method of humanity ; quietly, patiently, and steadfastly to 
execute, not the effervescence of a moment, but the delib- 
erate and large plans of a devoted and conscientious mind. 
'Incessant activity, be it of whatever sort it may, will 
become bankrupt in the end.' * The idea that ministers, 
in ' this day,' or in any other day, have a killing amount 
of business required at their hands — that 'the age' lays on 
them a crushing burden, must be false. And its greatest 
evil is, not the dispiriting, or disabling, or destroying the ex- 
isting race of officers in the Lord's house, but in degrading 
their office from its station, as a calm, and quiet, and 
steadfast, and yet mighty power — in fixing the expecta- 
tion of the people upon quantity, and multiplicity, and 
novelty of effort, rather than on its essence — in the long 
collapses which follow spasmodic efforts — in the want of 
a true and available industry in ministers and churches — 
and in the general disregard to the method of Heaven — the 
stopping and breaking up the water-courses from the tem- 
ple of the living God. It is time for the officers of the 
Lord's house, not to be idle and indifferent, not to bury 
one of their talents in the earth; but to think and to judge 
how they ought to behave in the church of the living God, 
and then to do what ought to be done, and to shun what 

* Gothe. 



Xll PREFACE. 

ought to be shunned ; lest that which is vain or profane 
eat as doth a canker 

"And now, in conclusion; it is fair to hope, and labor 
in hope, that a new development may ere-long be made of 
the powers of public worship, such as is predicted to bring 
on the long-expected glory of - the last days.' The failure 
of every substitute in fulfilling its early promise, and in 
accomplishing excellent and permanent results, may be 
supposed to have prepared the minds of men for a new and 
growing welcome of this ancient and divine ordinance. 
Surely the time must come, when the people will not ask 
for new, and still newer, and again for new and still 
newer ways of converting the people, if new and still 
newer, and again new and still newer disappointments can 

teach them wisdom It is fair to hope, that the time 

may be at hand, when the new method shall be a new 
welcome of the old one ; when the people shall say — when 
many people shall say, one to another, ' Come ye, and let 
us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the 
God of Jacob ; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will 
walk in his paths;' and that then out of Zion shall go 
forth the law, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem, 
bringing on the peaceful reign of the Redeemer. 

" Our part, as the officers of public worship, as ministers 
in the Lord's house, is to attend our courses with all 
fidelity and faith, and with such growing skill as believing 
and faithful men cannot fail to gain ; doing lohat ought to 
be done, and shunning what ought to be shunned; endeav- 
oring to exalt this institution to its due supremacy in the 
minds of men, as worthy to become ' an eternal excellency, 
the joy of many generations ;' until amidst us, and around 
us, and over the wide world, ' a little one shall become a 
thousand, and a small one a strong nation.' 



PREFACE. Xlll 

"I call upon you, fathers and brethren, with all the 
earnestness which becomes an officer of the Lord's house 
among his co-officials, to do your part, not to exalt public 
worship, as an important institution among others, co- 
ordinate and equal ; but as the institution, in which all 
that are worth possessing, have their subsistence and their 
power; which, when it shall be exalted to its due su- 
premacy, will be found recovering, and establishing, and 
invigorating, and perfecting, and extending all other insti- 
tutions for the benefit of man : — not as an old method, 
which ages have worn out ; but as vigorous and efficient 
as it is ancient and venerable ; still fresh in the ' dew of 
its youth;' still conquering by the rod of its strength; 
which has proved its power, in all ages, in proportion 
as it has been welcomed among men ; and which claims, 
as well from history as prophecy, to be the supreme 
method of the last days. 

" Come, then, fathers and brethren, officers and members 
of the churches, let us seal our pledge in behalf of this 
institution, in the blood which opened the House of Prayer 
for all People ; and from this venerated spot where our fa- 
thers worshipped, let us pass the word, far as their sons have 
spread, and through the world — ' Come ye, and let us go 
up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God 
of Jacob ; for he will teach us of his ways, and we will 
walk in His paths.' " 



CONTENTS. 



SERMON I. Page. 

The Purpose of Public Worship, 25 

SERMON II. 

Public Worship adapted to Man, 43 

SERMON IIL 

The Sabbath Morning Call, 62 

SERMON IV. 
The Call of all Ages: the Eras of Public Wor- 
ship, 73 

SERMON V. 

The Instructions of the Sanctuary, 99 

SERMON VI. 

The Experienced Teacher, 125 

SERMON VII. 

Official Character and Endowments, 140 

SERMON VIII. 

Our Gospel : the Christian Teacher in his Pe- 
culiarities, 161 

SERMON IX. 

The Author's Account of himself, 174 

SERMON X. 

Our Gospel: Union and Cooperation in one 
Gospel, 193 



XVI CONTENTS 

SERMON XI. Page. 

The People demanding a steadfast Teacher, .. 204 

SERMON XII. 
The Lost at the Temple, 218 

SERMON XIII. 

The Saved at the Temple, 240 

SERMON XIV. 

The Interval for Prater in behalf of Public 
Worship, 268 

SERMON XV. 
The Interval for Pains in behalf of Public 
Worship, 278 

SERMON XVI. 

The Public Hearing: Advantages of Public 
Worship, 289 

SERMON XVII. 

The Public Hearing : Advantages of Public 
Worship, 307 

SERMON XVIII. 

The Public Hearing: Substitutes discarded, .. 325 

SERMON XIX. 

The Method of the Last Days, 343 

SERMON XX. 
The Centennial of Public Worship, 370 

Note to Page 295, 397 



SERMON I 



AUGUST 12, 1838. 



THE PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

Psalm 84 : 1, 4, 5. 

How amiable are thy tabernacles, Lord of Hosts! — Blessed 
are they that dwell in thy house. — Blessed is the man whose 
strength is in thee! 

About a year ago I resolved to devote the ap- 
proaching autumnal circuit of meetings to two 
subjects of great practical importance. Public 
Worship, and the Family. Accordingly, beginning 
on the 13th September, 1837, at the remotest district 
east, I urged upon the assembled neighborhood 
those primary and abiding institutions. The two 
adjacent districts were next met, with nearly a 
repetition of my original urgency, a great proportion 
of the population of the east being assembled on 
each occasion. On the last I justified my renewed 
urgency, by quoting the maxim, " Strike where you 
have struck." A similar course was pursued in the 
central and western districts, until I had the satis- 
faction of feeling that I had made an honest and 
3 



26 PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

earnest appeal to every ear in town, almost without 
exception, in behalf of the two chief means of 
introducing and extending, of establishing and per- 
petuating truth and righteousness among the people, 
with what success, their actual state now, hereafter, 
and for ever, must decide : rather, must depend upon 
their neglect or welcome of my well-meant endeav- 
ors for their present and eternal well-being. 

I come now, as I have already forewarned you, 
with the like design as last fall, to renew my 
urgency before the assembled community, to strike 
where I have struck. I do this under the deep 
impression, that the pastoral office must benefit the 
people, chiefly, by invigorating and purifying the cen- 
tral and all-pervading institutions — by holding them 
in a state of purity and energy — by concentrating 
upon them expectation, and effort, and prayer — that 
from the central and all-pervading there may pro- 
ceed a living power, which shall overspread all 
society and all time. If, as I have often said to 
you, "I am but one in a thousand, in a million, 
amidst the applications to your conscience and your 
heart." yet, as a public officer, am I set for the high 
purpose of giving vitality and vigor to the whole 
thousand — to the million — to the unnumbered means 
of blessing which meet the whole path of life ; and 
this chiefly by fixing your minds upon those great 
institutions which God has appointed for sustaining, 
quickening, and making effectual all other instru- 
mentalities of good to man — Public Worship, and 
the Family. I shall confine myself for the present, 
to the consideration of Public Worship. 



PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 27 

I need not, I think, labor to show that the text 
may be properly applied to the Christian sanctuary. 
Where, if not there, is fulfilled the prophecy, " My 
house shall be called the house of prayer for all 
people?" Where, if not there, does He that gather- 
eth the outcasts of Israel, gather also the strangers 
of the Gentiles, " to serve him, and to love the name 
of the Lord, and to be his servants ; every one that 
keepeth the Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh 
hold of his covenant?"^ I assume all the declara- 
tions and acknowledgments, all the promises and 
prophecies, touching the ancient "ordinances of 
divine service," as applicable in the highest sense to 
the Christian sanctuary. In substance, and in their 
perfected state, these ordinances are continued under 
the new dispensation, and still hold the chief place 
in the means of blessing mankind. This only is 
the important difference, that like as the second 
temple, though as nothing in comparison with the 
glory of the first, did yet excel it, because the 
Desire of all nations came and filled it with His 
glory; so, by one sacrifice for sin, He hath rent the 
vail and opened "a new and living way" into the 
Holiest of all ; and behold ! instead of the glory of 
the former or latter temple, a House of Prayer for 
all people, with its ever-living High Priest, its new 
covenant, and the Holy Spirit abiding for ever ! Our 
High Priest hath not annulled, but remodelled and 
perfected the ancient " ordinances of divine service ;" 
hath not withdrawn the glory which filled the 

* Isaiah 50. 



28 PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

ancient temple, but increased and extended it. 
" The Lord is in his holy temple : let all the earth 
keep silence before him ! " 

The term, Public Worship, according to common 
usage, includes the two distinct offices of worship 
and instruction : the instructions being thus acknow- 
ledged as subservient to the prayers and praises 
of the sanctuary. I shall presently endeavor to 
commend the instructions of the Lord's house, but 
not until first and chiefly I have exalted it in its 
proper services of prayer and praise, in its prophetic 
glory as a " House of Prayer for all people." 

In proceeding to assert the purpose of public 
worship, I must assume its existence as divinely 
instituted and ordered, and that the perfect institu- 
tion of Heaven is not essentially marred or debased 
in its human administration; for in proportion as 
man mars and debases God's perfect gift, must it 
fail to be worthy of its original design — of the 
purpose of Heaven in its gift to man. I must then 
assume that the forms of worship divinely furnished 
for the house of prayer for all nations are substan- 
tially retained. They are so remarkably in the 
established forms of the English church, the mother 
of us all ; and they are so, no doubt, in good degree 
in the psalms and hymns, which are our only estab- 
lished forms of worship ; and we must assume that 
they are so in those unestablished forms, which 
according to our usage are furnished for the imme- 
diate occasion by each several officer. Certainly 
they who are invested with the high responsibility 
of furnishing the forms of prayer and praise for the 



PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 29 

people, should have special care either to employ 
the very words of Holy Scripture, or to copy with 
essential exactness its perfect models, lest they mar 
and debase Heaven's perfect gift — lest they fall short 
of the simplicity, and purity, and earnestness, and 
fulness of the established forms which we and our 
fathers have forsaken. 

Assuming, then, public worship as divinely insti- 
tuted and ordered, I proceed to assert its high pur- 
pose, as a method of piety ; a way of approach to 
God; a mould for the heart and character. The 
forms of prayer and praise are given to the people, 
to prompt them, to enable them, to transform them. 
They are the method, the way, the mould, by which 
the sinner may become a saint, and the saint be- 
come equal to the angels. They may be taken by 
the sinner at his first turning from the deepest guilt 
and helplessness ; and by the saint as he advances 
step by step to the eternal temple, there to be " still 
praising God." I am anxious to assert the purpose 
of public worship with the utmost distinctness, with 
the utmost fulness ; assured that the distinct and full 
assertion must commend itself without argument. 
Let me reassert it with still more determinate words. 
Public worship proffers a perfect method of piety ; 
it opens a true and living way of approach to God ; 
it furnishes the exact mould for the heart and char- 
acter: its forms are vital with the Spirit which 
accompanies them, to prompt the reluctant, to ena- 
ble the incapable, to transform the vile. Public 
worship is no method for remaining as we are, but 
for becoming what we ought to be; — no icay of 
3* 



30 PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

error and backsliding, but of repentance, of recov- 
ery, of progress heavenward ; — no would to make 
fast corruption, but to model and fix purity and 
love. Its forms are not to hinder, disable, and 
destroy, but to prompt, enable, and transform. 

The purpose of public worship, as now stated, is 
most manifest in the forms furnished in the Scrip- 
tures and which we are wont to adopt. What 
words of repentance and faith, of renewal and 
growth in grace, for instance, were furnished to the 
chief musician, i. e., for public worship, by the 
penitent king of Israel: "Have mercy upon me, 
O God, according to thy loving-kindness : according 
to the multitude of thy tender mercies, blot out my 
transgressions. Wash me thoroughly from my 
iniquity, and cleanse me from my sin. Create in 
me a clean heart and renew a right spirit within 
me. Restore unto me the joys of thy salvation, and 
uphold me with thy free Spirit." What a method 
of piety is here ! What a way of approach to God ! 
What a mould for the heart and character ! Again, 
the forms of praise : what transforming words, the 
very words of the children of the kingdom, proffered 
to the lips and the heart of the sons of men, that 
they may rise in them to the very spirit of heaven ! 
"We have thought of thy loving-kindness, O God, 
in the midst of thy temple : according to thy name, 
O God, so is thy praise unto the ends of the earth. 
Thy right hand is full of righteousness. Let mount 
Zion rejoice, let the daughters of Judah be glad, 
because of thy judgments. . . . For this God is our God 
for ever : he will be our guide even unto death. " ; 



PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 31 

" Praise ye the Lord. Praise the Lord, O my soul. 
While I live will I praise the Lord. I will sing 
praises unto my God while I have my being." 
Above all, consider the Lord's Prayer, the model 
for public worship, given by Him who rent the vail 
and opened the "house of prayer for all people:" 
the model of prayer and praise. What perfect 
words of repentance and faith; of renewal and 
growth in grace ; of love to God and love to man ; 
of submission, and obedience, and meekness, and 
kindness, and peace, to prompt, enable and trans- 
form ! What a method of piety ■ what a way of 
approach to God; what a mould for the heart and 
character, in this one brief and comprehensive mod- 
el, in these divinely appointed words : " Our Father 
which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name : thy 
kingdom come : thy will be done in earth as it is in 
heaven. Give us this day our daily bread. And 
forgive us our debts as we forgive our debtors. 
And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us 
from evil : for thine is the kingdom and the power 
and the glory, for ever. Amen." Happy they who 
take these words upon their lips and in their heart ; 
who are transformed by this perfect form ; who take 
this method of piety; who enter this way of ap- 
proach to God ; who flow into this mould for the 
heart and character ! In proportion as the people 
"take hold of God's covenant," in the use of this 
perfect form, will be acceptance and joy in the 
house of prayer over the whole earth ! 

But more : the purpose of public worship, mani- 
fest in its very nature and implied in its forms, is 



32 PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

declared in the Scriptures with the utmost distinct- 
ness and fulness, and illustrated with the utmost 
beauty. Thus, when the glories of the first temple 
were hastening to pass away — in an extreme case, 
that it might embrace all cases — the prophet calls 
backsliding Israel to employ the transforming forms 
of worship : # " O Israel, return unto the Lord thy 
God, for thou hast fallen by thy iniquity. Take 
with you words and turn unto the Lord. Say unto 
Him, take away all iniquity, and receive us gra- 
ciously : so will we render the calves of our lips. 
Ashur shall not save us : we will not ride upon 
horses, neither will we say any more to the work of 
our hands, Ye are our gods ; for in thee the father- 
less findeth mercy. 1 will heal their backsliding, 

I will love them freely, for mine anger is turned 
away from them. I will be as the dew unto Israel : 
he shall grow as the lily, and cast forth his roots 
as Lebanon. His branches shall spread, and his 
beauty shall be as the olive-tree, and his smell as 
Lebanon." And these words of turning unto God, 
and such as these, are passed down to us in the 
house of prayer for all nations, where the sons of the 
stranger are called in like manner to join themselves 
to the Lord, to serve him, and to love the name 
of the Lord, keeping the Sabbath from polluting it, 
and taking hold of his covenant. O yes ! the words 
of return given to the outcasts of Israel are proffered 
to the strangers of the Gentiles, that the Lord may 
be as the dew upon them, and that in every land 

*Hosea 14. 



PURPOSE OF PUELIC WORSHIP. 33 

they may grow as the lily and cast forth their roots 
as Lebanon. " The Lord God, which gathereth the 
outcasts of Israel, saith, Yet will I gather others 
to him, besides those that are gathered unto him." # 
11 For there is no difference between the Jew and 
the Greek ; for the same Lord over all, is rich unto 
all that call upon Him. For whosoever shall call 
upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." f 

In order to the purpose thus stated and verified, 
the forms of public worship must needs be, as in the 
Scripture models they are, perfect expressions, prof- 
fered to imperfect man — to sinful man. Its " words " 
are given, not according to the measure of our 
weakness, and ignorance, and sinfulness, but of our 
duty and privilege : not as of ourselves, in disobe- 
dience and unbelief, we should pray and praise ; 
but as we ought, and as we may, directed and aided 
from on high. The forms of prayer prescribe no 
limit, if you make no limit — no restraint, if you 
make no restraint. "Open thy mouth wide, and 
I will fill it." " He that asketh receiveth." " Who- 
soever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be 
saved." The privilege is as full as each worshipper 
shall make it. Prayer has no limit, but in the 
failure of those right desires of which public worship 
gives you the full expression. If you would ex- 
tend the measure of your blessings, you have but to 
enter more fully into the "words" which God has 
given you : to adopt them with increased purity 
and energy of faith. Adopt as your own, truly, 

* Isaiah 56. t Romans 10. 



34 PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

fully, our "words" of invocation as we enter these 
courts — the prayer that God would teach us by his 
word and Spirit; that he would perfect in his sanc- 
tuary all the discipline of the week and of life ; and 
you will find God your wisdom, holiness, and 
strength. Say, fully, truly, " Lo this is our God, 
we have waited for Him, we will be glad and 
rejoice in His salvation;" and you will find "a 
feast of fat things, of wines on the lees, well re- 
fined;" will taste the victory which swallows up 
death and wipes away all tears. However dry the 
channels of divine mercy to others, to you they will 
be full : " the glorious Lord, a place of broad rivers 
and streams." Barren services are the calamity of 
barren hearts. As the desires expand and faith 
grows; as the soul adopts more and more the 
" words" divinely given, you will be filled with 
all the " fulness of God." 

The like may be said of praise. The blessing 
may be restrained by your unbelief, by your self- 
glorying, by your unthankfulness for mercies an- 
swering and exceeding your prayers: but there is 
no limit beside which need prevent the praises of 
the lower sanctuary from harmony with the pure 
and perfect praises of the temple above, to which 
they are attuned. Nothing but praiseless hearts 
can hinder you from rising with all saints and 
angels, and with all God's works, in the "words" 
furnished for the praises of the lower sanctuary : 
11 Bless the Lord, ye his angels that excel in strength, 
that do his commandments, hearkening to the voice 
of his word. Bless ye the Lord, all ye his hosts, ye 



PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 35 

ministers of his that do his pleasure. Bless the 
Lord, all his works, in all places of his dominion. 
Bless the Lord, O my soul." There is no limit 
to the privilege of praise on earth but in the heart 
which God calls and prompts to offer it : in its 
reluctance or refusal to fill the forms divinely prof- 
fered to its use. There is no reaching after the 
fulness of the privilege, but in expanding the heart 
with humble gratitude. 

Nor is the fulness in form merely : unlimited 
indeed, if the heart were what it is not, believing, 
prayerful, humble, thankful; but beyond an im- 
passable limit, since the heart is ivhat it is, unbe- 
lieving, prayerless, self-glorying, and unthankful : 
a mere mockery, after all, to the reluctant, and 
unwilling, and rebellious heart of man !— A method 
of piety, and yet no method to him who has to 
begin ! a way of approach to God, and yet no way 
to him who has to take the first step in it ! a mould 
for the heart and character, and yet no mould to him 
who has yet to be melted and to flow into it ! a 
transforming form, and yet with no power to prompt, 
enable, and transform ! It cannot be so : it cannot 
be thus that the house of prayer is opened for all 
people. Public worship is no mockery to those 
whom it calls to the full forms of prayer and praise ; 
is no mere seeming of privilege, proving itself of no 
avail in the actual condition of those to whom it is 
proffered : but it comes fraught with power to 
prompt, enable, and transform. The " words" it 
gives, "they are spirit and they are life," — accom- 
panied by that energy which brought Jesus from 



36 PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

the dead. " The Lord is in his holy temple : let all 
the earth keep silence before him ! " He hath poured 
out his Spirit upon all flesh : " and it shall come to 
pass that whosoever shall call upon the name of the 
Lord shall be saved. For in Mount Zion and in 
Jerusalem shall be deliverance, as the Lord hath 
said.'"'^ The striving Spirit, the renewing Spirit, 
the sanctifying Spirit, fills the house of prayer, as 
of old the glory of the Lord filled the temple. 
Happy they who are prompted, enabled, trans- 
formed, by the Spirit, with the words which He has 
given; who receive God's favor as the dew upon 
them ; who learn to pray by the Spirit which ena- 
bles prayer ; who say, aided as they ask, " Quicken 
us, and we will call upon thy name. Turn us 
again, O Lord God of hosts : cause thy face to 
shine upon us, and we shall be saved." 

In this assertion of the purpose of public worship, 
we give the true answer to an objection sometimes 
made against the universality of its forms. Why, it 
is asked, offer up prayers and praises, pure and 
true, in the name of the whole assembly, when 
a part, and even a small part only, are pure and 
true worshippers; in the name of the impure and 
untrue? Alas, the strange medley which they 
make of public worship, who mingle its forms with 
the exceptions, and explanations, and limitations 
which this objection requires, instead of following 
the wisdom of the ancient forms of our mother 
church, of our own psalms and hymns, and, above 

* Joel 2 and Acts 2. 



PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 37 

all, of the Scripture models which have passed down 
into the house of prayer for all people. God is 
wiser than man. He gives to the outcasts of Israel, 
and to the strangers of the Gentiles, forms pure and 
true, that He may gather both to Himself, that 
whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord 
may be saved. 

There is a peculiar duty and difficulty in regard 
to this matter in the case of those who like our- 
selves adopt the method of unwritten prayer : it 
being the almost necessary consequence that the 
forms should be modified by the varying mind of 
him who directs the service; should come to fall 
short of the fulness of the Scripture model, even 
while the soul is best prepared for personal worship ; 
should come to conform to the low state of desire, and 
repentance, and faith, and thanksgiving, of which the 
leader is conscious, instead of the full expressions 
which are given us that we may strive to rise and Jill 
them. The rule is plain : unless we would miss 
the high purpose of public worship, we must not 
sink its perfect forms to the actual condition of the 
truest worshippers ; we must not accommodate them 
to our own actual imperfections; but must "take 
with us words" such as God has given, that we 
may be transformed by them. I plead guilty my- 
self to this common error of the directors of extem- 
poraneous worship ; recollecting how often I have 
substituted, for the perfect forms of Scripture, which 
in my own imperfection I seemed unable to fill out, 
other and lower words ) expressive only of those 
imperfect desires and feelings of which I was con- 
4 



38 PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

scious ; substituting, for the words of true prayer 
and praise, the expressions of imperfect prayer and 
praise. Let me stand corrected. Neither as a pri- 
vate individual, nor as a public officer, may I 
decline the full and perfect forms of worship which 
God has given for me and for the people, lest I 
miss, and cause others to miss, the true method 
of piety — the 'perfect way of approach to God — the 
exact mould for the heart and character. I must 
not, even in the depth of my personal consciousness 
of sin, " take words," in behalf of myself or others, 
less full and perfect than the prayer which our Lord 
gave us — than all the prayers and praises of the 
Scriptures. 

This principle of perfect forms for imperfect man 
— of perfect forms for the outcasts of Israel and 
strangers of the Gentiles — crowns public worship as 
the gracious privilege and opportunity to man; as 
the most cheering and glorious publication of the 
gospel to man. This, indeed, is good news to man, 
that Jesus has opened the house of prayer for all 
people ; and that full and perfect forms are given, 
Tvith the Holy Ghost, to prompt, enable, and trans- 
form ; that all nations are called thus to worship the 
Father in spirit and in truth. O think not that 
"the sermon" chiefly, proclaims the "gospel" unto 
man, or that the "sinner's" opportunity is chiefly 
when he is listening to the preacher's communica- 
tions. If there be a comparison, the gospel is freer, 
richer, more glorious, in the prayers and praises; 
glows with more reviving and healing light in the 
perfect forms of worship. The words, "Let us 



PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 39 

pray," — what a promulgation of glad tidings to the 
people! If one part of the "ordinances of divine 
service " is to be esteemed above the rest, as a more 
excellent privilege and opportunity, it is not when 
the mere offer of pardon and assistance is made — the 
mere requirement "of all men everywhere to re- 
pent j" but when the very words are given of turn- 
ing unto God — the very words of repentance, and 
faith, and hope, and thanksgiving, and praise ; 
when the way of holiness is thus opened, in which 
the sinful and the ignorant need not err ; and the 
very stream passes by, on which the wide people 
may flow onward to their rest. O yes ! the forms 
of worship are the promptings of the love of God, 
of the grace of the Saviour — the Sowings forth of 
loving-kindness, from the deep and boundless sea 
of the divine goodness, through all the channels 
of society, that the people may flow back, as on the 
returning tide, in all the fulness of prayer and 
praise. Never, never does "good-will to man" 
flow forth a fuller stream, than in the forms of 
worship, nor more urgent upon the people, buoyed 
up and moved on that returning flood ! 

Wonderful institution! giving us "words" that 
we may "return unto the Lord our God," receiving, 
as we come, the dew of his favor on every branch ; 
growing as the lily, and sending forth our roots as 
Lebanon. Wonderful institution ! providing for 
" all people " a method of piety, a way of approach 
to God, a mould for the heart and character ! What 
though the sinner be " fallen by his iniquity, " if the 
very words of return are given him, and the very 



40 PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

Spirit to prompt and enable him to "take them and 
turn unto the Lord his God?" What though he 
enter the " house of prayer for all people," in 
all the ignorance, and helplessness, and unwilling- 
ness of the carnal mind; if he meets the "Son 
of God in the likeness of sinful flesh," and the 
Spirit of God, to prompt and enable the cry, "Abba 
Father ! " What though the saint, amidst his im- 
perfections, again and again know not how to pray, 
if the words of true prayer, and the Spirit by which 
he may take them, meet him again and again in the 
house of prayer? True, the sinner is too sinful to 
pray — too reluctant and unwilling — but he meets 
the true words, and the all-powerful Spirit, and the 
enabling command, " Seek ye the Lord while he 
may be found ; call ye upon him while he is near ; 
let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous 
man his thoughts, and let him return unto the Lord, 
and he will have mercy upon him, and to our God, 
for he will abundantly pardon." True, the saint 
may enter the house of prayer in feebleness of spirit, 
oppressed with a known and felt unworthiness, 
incapable of prayer, unprepared to "worship the 
Father in spirit and in truth;" but the Almighty 
Spirit meets him in the true and pure forms of 
ancient worship, proffering the "words" and the 
power of a true repentance, and faith, and adoration, 
and praise; drawing with the "words" the whole 
heart to the throne of grace ; prompting, enabling, 
transforming; until the timid soul is surprised at 
the boldness which has come upon it — at the assur- 
ance and peace in believing — at the victory gained 



PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 41 

and carried forth from the house of prayer, in 
temper and conduct amidst all the vicissitudes and 
temptations of life. The true worshippers are 
" helped from the sanctuary and strengthened out 
of Zion." "Passing through the valley of Baca, 
they make it a well, the rain also filleth the pools." 
Happy the sinner who takes the words which God 
has given in his house ! Happy the saint who 
dwells in his house ! 

The purpose of public worship, as now asserted, 
is concentrated and applied with the highest power 
in Psalm 24 — requiring of those who come to 
the ordinances of divine service, that they govern 
their whole heart and life according to the forms of 
the sanctuary: "Who shall ascend into the hill of 
the Lord, and who shall stand in his holy place? 
He that hath clean hands and a pure heart; who 
hath not lifted up his soul unto vanity, nor sworn 
deceitfully : he shall receive the blessing from the 
Lord, and righteousness from the God of his sal- 
vation. This is the generation of them that seek 
thee, that seek thy face, O Jacob." 

li l do not choose to pray, for if I do I must 
live better." Alas for those who refuse public wor- 
ship because its purpose is to reform the heart and 
the life ! Alas for those who refuse this high pur- 
pose in the services to which they come ! Be it 
ours to adopt this method of piety — this way of 
approach to God — this mould for the heart and 
character. Let us be thankful that every Sabbath 
brings us before God, with the public expression 
of the repentance, and faith, and adoration, and 
4^ 



42 PURPOSE OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

love, that we owe to our God and Saviour ; with 
such prayers and praises as we ought to render 
in his holy temple ; and that thus we are instructed, 
and corrected, and aided in our lives ; and that 
every week we are encouraged and rebuked by the 
recollection and anticipation of the Temple service. 
Let it be our daily concern, to be transformed by the 
forms of worship — to live as we pray. Then shall 
we apprehend that for which we are apprehended of 
Christ Jesus, in these holy services ; and honestly, 
earnestly attempting to pray that we may be enabled 
to live aright, shall we know the influence of pub- 
lic worship, and " go from strength to strength, 
until we shall every one appear in Zion before 
God." 



SERMON II. 



AUGUST 12, 1838. 



PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 



Psalm §4 : 5, 6. 

Blessed is the man whose strength is in Thee : in whose heart 
are the ways of them; who passing through the valley of Baca 
make it a well. 

I have already commended public worship in its 
primary services of prayer and praise, in its high 
purpose as a method of piety — a way of approach 
to God — a mould for the heart and character. It 
remains to be added at present, that public worship 
is adapted to the nature and condition of man ; to 
his native tendencies and to the chances and 
changes of this mortal life. 

If the question be on a true worship, on true 
prayer and praise, then no man worships until the 
moment of his first vital and unfeigned faith, of his 
first vital and unfeigned welcome of the Spirit to 
his bosom. No man prays, until he truly makes 
his own, the prayers — no man praises, until he truly 



44 PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 

makes his own, the praises to which the word and 
Spirit prompt him in private and in public worship ; 
until he truly takes the words of turning unto God. 
There is no true prayer and praise, no true worship, 
but in the actual breathings of eternal life. All this 
is certain. But is it therefore certain, that there are 
no tendencies to prayer and praise in the nature and 
condition of man ? Is it therefore certain, that the 
mind of man is not moved from within and from 
without, by desires to which nothing else is adapted 
but prayer ; — with a joyousness to which nothing 
else is adapted but praise; — yes, and with mutual 
sympathies of desire and joyousness, which nothing 
else can satisfy but public worship — public prayer 
and public praise 1 To say that there are no ten- 
dencies to prayer and praise in sinful man, even 
while he refuses to render true prayer and true 
praise ; to say that there are no stern compulsions to 
force, no winning attractions to draw man's un- 
willing and reluctant mind to prayer and praise, 
and to public prayer and praise; is to deny the 
plainest attributes and experiences of humanity, as 
well as to set aside the chief appeals of the Scrip- 
tures for the worship of man, and to refuse the very 
words of return which God proffers in his open 
temple to all nations ; to deny and refuse, while we 
feel and contend with them, the very winds and 
streams which move and force us towards our only 
rest. 

The most remarkable illustration of the native 
tendencies of man to the worship of God — to public 
worship — may be found in the whole state and his- 



PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 45 

tory of the Pagan world. Whence is it that private 
and public worship have prevailed in all nations 
and in all times 1 that temples have been built, a 
priesthood set apart, and prayers, and praises, and 
vows, and offerings, been paid wherever the human 
race has unfolded its tendencies, from generation to 
generation, for thousands of years? Whence is it 
that we may now say, Search the wide world 
around — its millions and its hundreds of millions — 
and you cannot find the people, who are not called 
and do not come to public prayer and praise 1 Yes, 
base as are the gods which their vain imaginations 
have conceived; helpless, motionless, lifeless as are 
the mere images which their own hands have 
formed ; vile even as are the beasts, and birds, and 
creeping things, into which they have changed the 
glory of the incorruptible God ; millions and hun- 
dreds of millions are now paying the worship which 
they have inherited from all generations, following 
their priesthood to the temples of their worship. 
For why, but because there are tendencies in man 
which force and draw him to worship, even though 
the most imperfect and basest idea of a God ? For 
why, but because man has necessities that he can- 
not supply; cravings that no human power can 
satisfy ; a conscience that nothing can appease but 
the divine favor, and a heart that nothing but divine 
love can fill? These are the reasons why public 
worship has its temples, and its priesthood, and its 
services, and its crowds of worshippers, now as in 
every age, over the wide world. Priestcraft is it? 
Is it — can it be Priestcraft which produces the 



46 PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 

universal worship of man ? Priestcraft is it, that 
covers, and has covered in all ages, the wide world 
with public worship? Rather, priestcraft is the 
consequence of the tendencies to worship in man's 
nature and condition, and not the cause of this uni- 
versal worship. If man had not had the strongest 
tendencies to worship, and if his condition had not 
given them scope, there would have been no room 
for priestcraft .... In truth, every temple, every 
shrine, every priest, every holiday, every pilgrimage 
to a holy place, every prayer, and every votive 
offering, in all times and in all lands, give one 
united testimony, that 'public worship is adapted to 
the nature and condition of man — that man has 
tendencies which have no due issue but in public 
worship. The call to prayer and praise, from every 
mosque and minaret, from every temple of the 
Mahometan and Pagan world, would not have been 
obeyed by millions in successive generations, if 
public worship had not been adapted to the nature 
and condition of man — if it had not been in all ages 
demanded by the hungry and thirsty soul of man. 

Yes, and I may say more : the very numbers and 
variety of the Pagan divinities — crowding all the 
scenes of life, beside every path, presiding over 
every business, meeting every emergency — do not 
more fully indicate the perverseness of man. than 
they do those religious tendencies, those cravings 
for worship, which are thus perverted. Why is 
Ceres the goddess of the cornfield, and Minerva 
of the arts — why is Mars the god of war, and 
Neptune, of the sea — but that human nature is 



PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 47 

prompted to worship amidst all the occasions of 
life, all the chances and changes of humanity ? 

Think not that human nature is altered — is 
another and different thing where the true God 
is known. It was not in ancient Israel, in the 
bright days when God manifested himself by visible 
tokens and through His wonder-working prophets. 
Himself the interpreter of the tendencies of man. 
The commandments, uttered by the very voice of 
God from Sinai, and then written, for all ages, on 
tables of stone, proceed on the ground that man will 
never refuse to worship — requiring the worship of 
the true God, by forbidding the worship of false 
gods. " Thou shalt have no other gods before meP 
"Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image, 
nor any likeness of any thing that is in heaven 
above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is 
in the water under the earth : thou shalt not bow 
down thyself to them nor serve them." The re- 
proofs and chidings to which the Israelites gave 
occasion, were against their false worship — as in 
that pungent question, drawn from the history of all 
nations, " Hath a nation changed their gods, which 
yet are no gods? But my people have changed 
their glory for that which doth not profit . . . How 
canst thou say, I am not polluted ; I have not gone 
after Balaam 1 As the thief is ashamed when he is 
found, so is the house of Israel ashamed : they, their 
kings, their priests, and their prophets; saying to a 
stock, Thou art my father, and to a stone, Thou 
hast brought me forth : for they have turned their 



48 PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 

back unto me and not their face : but in the time of 
their trouble they will say, Arise and save us." 

Yes ; and the highest privileges of their covenant 
relations were but an adaptation to the nature and 
condition of man — to the occasions of this needy 
life — to the impulses, and anxieties, and desires 
connected with the " chances and changes" of 
humanity. The Temple, with its tokens and as- 
surances that God will in very deed dwell with 
man — the place where he recorded his name — was 
itself an adaptation to our weak, and suffering, and 
sinfid humanity, longing for a Helper amidst the 
occasions of life. Solomon's prayer, at the dedica- 
tion of the temple, is the proper programme of 
public worship for all ages, for the house of prayer 
for all nations. How adapted to man ! It is turned 
as clay to the seal : 

M When heaven is shut up and there is no rain, 
because they have sinned against thee ; if they pray 
towards this place, and confess thy name, and turn 
from their sin when thou arnictest them, then hear 
thou in heaven and forgive the sin of thy servants 
and of thy people Israel ; that thou teach them the 
good way wherein they should walk, and give rain 
upon thy land, which thou hast given to thy people 
for an inheritance. 

"If there be in the land famine, if there be pesti- 
lence, blasting, mildew, locust, or if there be cater- 
pillar ; if their enemy besiege them in the land of 
their cities, whatsoever plague, whatsoever sickness 
there be; what prayer and supplication soever be 



PUBLIC WOESHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 49 

made by any man, or by all thy people Israel, which 
shall know every man the plague of his own heart, 
and spread forth his hands towards this house : 
then hear thou in heaven thy dwelling-place, and 
forgive, and do, and give to every man according to 
his ways, whose heart thou knowest, that they may 
fear thee all the days that they live in the land 
which thou gavest unto their fathers. 

" Moreover, concerning a stranger that is not of 
thy people Israel, but cometh out of a far country 
for thy name's sake, — when he shall come and pray 
toward this house, hear thou in heaven thy dwelling- 
place, and do according to all that the stranger 
calleth to thee for." 

I am aware of the difficulty which meets us as 
we turn our eyes upon Christian lands, upon Protes- 
tant Christendom, upon our own land, upon our 
own neighborhood around this Christian temple. 
No one can be more deeply impressed than I am 
with the marvel of the Christian world ! of Protes- 
tant Christendom ! of every spot on which I have 
set my eyes in my own country ! Returning in my 
youth from a people whose worship, though base, was 
universal, I came back into the open temple of the 
true God — into the house of prayer for all people — 
alas ! to see every where worship neglected and 
refused, until I have asked myself, has human na- 
ture become another thing in Christian lands, and in 
modern times, from what it has been in all ages and 
nations? or is human nature outraged wherever 
worship is neglected or refused? Here, what see 
we, on this very spot set apart for public worship 
5 



50 PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 

for a hundred years 1 Half the people, almost, neg- 
lecting and refusing even the outward forms of 
worship ! and of the other half, how many neglect- 
ing and refusing to adopt as their own the forms 
they employ ! Have they, then, no tendencies to 
worship? Is the Christian temple unadapted to 
their nature and condition 1 Or do they outrage 
human nature itself — their own nature — in their 
atheism — in their neglect or refusal of public wor- 
ship 1 

I have no hesitation in the answer to these ques- 
tions. " As in water face answereth to face, so doth 
the heart of man to man." Human nature is the 
same here, substantially, as in all ages and in all 
nations. These practical atheists of the Christian 
world — these multitudes who live around the tem- 
ples of the living God, and neglect and refuse to 
worship, outrage their own nature — their own im- 
pulses, and anxieties, and desires, amidst the chances 
and the changes of humanity. They are not, they 
cannot be. consistent with themselves ! There is no 
such thing, there can be no such thing, as a life spent 
unmoved toward the worship of God ! Look again 
at these atheists in the wide and open temple of all 
nations — these men that neglect or refuse to worship 
God — and see if they can, if they dare, if they do, 
amidst all the chances and changes of humanity, 
refuse to worship. See if, in the time of their trouble 
at least, they do not cry, "Arise and save us/' and 
in the hope or the joy of deliverance, do not vow 
unto the Lord. The atheistical neglecter or refuser 
of divine worship in fair weather, cries mightily to 



PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 51 

God in the storm ; the forsaker of God in health, is 
an anxious worshipper in his deadly sickness, prom- 
ising as easily as he may forget when his deliver- 
ance is complete. And in degree, amidst all the 
chances and changes of humanity, the impulses, and 
anxieties, and desires of the human mind, yielded 
or not, are towards God's holy temple; unsatisfied 
until the heart yields itself in pure worship to the 
Creator, and Helper, and Redeemer of man, accor- 
ding to the ancient programme — rather, according to 
the still more perfect adaptation of the house of 
prayer for all people: "We have not an High Priest 
who cannot be touched with the feeling of our 
infirmities, but was in all points tempted like as we 
are, yet without sin." " In that he himself suffered, 
being tempted, he is able to succor them that are 
tempted." "Who, in the days of his flesh — offered 
up prayers and supplications with strong crying and 
tears," in the very words which he derived from 
the lips of tried, and tempted, and suffering men. 
What an adaptation is here ! The words of ancient 
believers, and of our own High Priest himself, 
" touched with the feeling of our infirmities," prof- 
fered unto us in the house of prayer, that we may 
" come boldly to the throne of grace, that we majr 
obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of 
need." 

It were easy to point you to instances in which 
every hearer would recognize this peculiar opportu- 
nity — the adaptation of public worship to occasions 
of social necessity — when the public mind, amidst 
its neglect and refusal of worship, has been urged 



52 PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 

and forced to seek unto God. We have witnessed 
such occasions, I might say a hundred times during 
my few years' residence among you. Sometimes we 
have come to this temple, each in his turn feeling 
more deeply his own peculiar care and want, " the 
plague of his own heart," under some divine rebuke. 
But sometimes we have come, as a great commu- 
nity, moved by one common impulse, and anxiety, 
and desire. Yes, there have been times of social 
necessity and sympathy, in which the whole public 
have been roused, and in which the forms of public 
worship, adapted to the special occasion, were not 
mere words of course to the public ear — to the most 
habitual neglecter or mocker ; when the whole com- 
munity felt that there ivas no help but in God ; 
when God came to hide pride for a season from 
the social mind, that he might bring multitudes 
from the pit, if haply they would look to him and 
be enlightened with the light of the living; when, 
in a sense, every eye was directed unto God, and 
even the prayerless prayed — not only in the pub- 
lic forms, which they found ready for the urgent 
occasion, but even with intensity of desire ; failing 
of true prayer only where the heart refused to yield 
to that urgent occasion, and to ask in a true faith — 
yet proving how adapted was the public form to the 
public circumstances and to the public mind — how 
fitting the opportunity for prayer to become true, 
for desire to become a pure and transforming faith. 
Two instances shall be named — one because the 
most remarkable, and the other because the most 
recent in my recollection. 



PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 53 

I refer, Jirst, then, to the forms of public worship 
at the coming and the spread of the cholera over 
our land — the " pestilence," as provided for in the 
prayer of Solomon. You recollect how we prayed 
that the pestilence might be turned back from our 
coasts — that its rapid progress might be stayed — 
that death might not come up into our windows, to 
cut off the children from without and the young men 
from our streets ; — yes, and smitten by the terror of 
coming judgment, how we prayed that the wise man 
might no more glory in his wisdom, nor the mighty 
man in his might, nor the rich man in his riches, 
but that we might all glory in knowing the Lord, 
who exerciseth loving-kindness, and righteousness, 
and judgment in the earth. — What a preparation 
was wrought upon us for such forms of worship, 
and how were they adapted to the occasion and 
state of mind in which we suddenly found our- 
selves ! What a preparation of mind in millions 
with us, was there wrought for such forms of prayer, 
as the news spread over our land that the cholera 
had reached Montreal ! How prepared for the due 
forms of public worship, on Sabbath, June 24, 1S32, 
were millions, as they were not on the preceding 
Sabbath — "every man knowing the plague of his 
own heart" — "to spread forth his hands towards 
heaven ! " And in those forms of prayer, if such 
as God approved, what a flowing down of loving- 
kindness was there upon the assembled people, 
to meet our welcome and our prayers ! to waft, 
as on the returning tide of Heaven's mercy, our 
desires upward to the throne of grace ! to transform 
5* 



54 PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 

and form our minds after the image of onr God ! 
What a method of piety ! What a way of approach 
unto God ! What a mould for the heart and char- 
acter ! 

You recollect, too, how the pestilence passed by, 
doing its strange work elsewhere, but leaving us 
unharmed; and how, after waiting upon God for 
weeks in his house, in the forms of humble sup- 
plication, we met together to give thanks, and to 
praise the Lord for delivering mercies — prepared by 
the kindness of Heaven to welcome the forms of 
public praise furnished in his holy temple : "I love 
the Lord, because he hath heard my voice and 
, my supplication ; because he hath inclined his ear 
unto me, therefore will I call upon him as long 
as I live. I will walk before the Lord in the 
land of the living. I will pay my vows unto the 
Lord, now in the presence of all his people, in the 
courts of the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, 
O Jerusalem : Praise ye the Lord." 

I dare not say that all who heard me proffer this 
divine form of praise did make it their own, and 
have since continued their praise in their lives and 
in their deaths ; but this I dare to say, that of 
all that multitude who came up to these courts, 
September 23, 1832, not one was there, but felt in 
measure the promptings of his own inward mind, 
and of the striving Spirit, to render praise ; not one 
that could deny our assertion of the tendencies to 
praise in the nature and condition of man, nor the 
proof which we assumed from the native country of 
the cholera. Let the repetition of that assertion, and 



PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 55 

that proof, recal the assent you rendered that day, 
and your truth or falsehood to yourselves as spared 
and living men for the last six years. 

"There was a divine appeal" (we said in this 
place, that day), " when the first thunders of judg- 
ment were heard, and when they rolled nearer and 
louder, smiting multitudes suddenly and awfully. 
Is there not an appeal more powerful now, as the 
storm seems clearing off, and the thunders almost 
dying on our ear, until we seem to see the soft light 
of love gilding all the scene, and ourselves encom- 
passed as within the pavilion of the Merciful 1 We 
cannot suppose that the human heart is altogether 
unobserving of the hand of Providence, which 
delivers and preserves. Nay, the tide of natural 
gratitude sometimes rises high, as if to bear the 
heart to the Author of all mercies. No where does 
this world seem so powerfully to force the heart 
to God, as when that tide is up. No where does 
the baseness of man seem so vile as when he refuses 
the impulse and the aid. Is there not a tide ?ioid, in 
the affairs of men, of our whole country, ready to 
waft us to our rest 1 O that it may rise higher, and 
flow stronger, and bear us onward to the haven 
of our choice ! Let us take it at the flood, and be 
borne away on the streams of everlasting love." 

And who could deny — who dared deny, the proof 
against himself, which we assumed from the "native 
country of the cholera," "of the natural tendency of 
delivering mercy to bring the heart to God." " The 
Hindoos, like us" (we said), "seek to their gods in 
their anxiety and peril; like us they pray and vow; 



56 PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 

but not like us do they neglect to pay their vows 
and bring their thank-offerings. When they are 
delivered, they rise high on the tide of natural 
gratitude, flowing to their gods. Yes, the country 
whence this pestilence has come, sends with it a 
lesson to the Christian world. When their prayer 
seems to them to be answered, their vow to be 
accepted — when pestilence has been averted or re- 
moved, they come with their votive gratitude, with 
their humble prostrations, with their loud praises : a 
lesson to all Christian nations, showing that nature 
has its tide to help men to God, and rebuking our 
folly and sin — our ingratitude, baser even than 
idolatry. What expressions of gratitude, individual 
and public, must the retiring cholera have called 
forth on the plains of Hindoostan ! How have the 
streets of every city, the roads to every temple, been 
lined with their grateful processions, bearing their 
gifts ! How has the very dust been kissed and 
embraced by their prostrate gratitude to them that 
" are no gods!" How have the arches of heaven 
rung again and again with their praises, while ten 
thousand temples have received their thank-offerings ! 
And now, tell us — now that intelligence has learned 
to fly over the wide world — shall it be told on the 
banks of the Ganges, on the plains and mountains 
of the Dekkan, that when the cholera reached the 
Christian world, there too it awoke prayer, it forced 
vows — there too the people bowed under the uplifted 
rod, prayed earnestly and promised fair ! — but that, 
as soon as it was passed, the vow was forgotten, the 
God of deliverance forgotten, and the offering forgot- 



PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 57 

ten ; that almost no hearts were given him, no lives 
consecrated to his service, and no tongues of praise 
unloosed ; that the multitude held back their tongue, 
their heart, their lives, their all. from their God and 
Saviour?" 

Passing now from this remarkable instance of the 
adaptation of public worship to the nature and con- 
dition of man — to our own nature and condition — I 
refer to the more recent occasion, which I may say 
continues to prompt and move us even until this 
present hour. 

A fortnight ago this day, as we came up to God's 
house, the heavens were as brass over our heads, 
and the earth as dust under our feet. For weeks 
the rains had been withheld, and the clouds, which 
from time to time had promised to refresh us, poured 
elsewhere their stores, or were dissolved in the air, 
while all nature was withering around us and ready 
to perish. There needed but a few more days of 
drought, to cut short the hopes of the season, and 
we saw and felt that there was no help but in Him 
who ruleth all things. As we came up to this house 
to our afternoon service, and amidst the first drops 
of returning mercy, we lifted up our voice in the 
forms of public worship, praying for the show r ers to 
water the earth ; and were not all hearts prompted 
to attempt to pray in those forms adapted to our needy 
condition and to the earnest desires for the divine 
favor to which our circumstances had given rise? 
Yes, and when the waters, as we proceeded towards 
the close of that service, were poured upon us like a 
flood, did we not find all minds prompted to give 



58 PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 

the thanks we gave ; to utter the vows we uttered ; 
and to pray the prayer we prayed, that water might 
be poured out upon the thirsty, and floods upon the 
dry ground — God's Spirit on our seed and his bless- 
ing on our offspring ; that they might spring up as 
among the grass and the willows by the water- 
courses. And when the outward mercy detained 
us in God's house after the services were concluded, 
rejoicing in the abundant showers, did we find our 
hearts unprompted amidst our repeated songs of 
praise? Whose heart did not at that moment re- 
spond to our closing song? — 

" Let grace come down, like copious rain, 
On Zion's chosen field; 
So shall our souls revive again, 
And fruit abundant yield : 

Then smiling nature shall express 

Her mighty Maker's praise, 
And we, the children of thy grace, 

Join her harmonious lays." 

I close the discourses of this day with four advices. 

1. Come, and call others to come with you, to 
public worship. I shall have occasion, at another 
time, to say, come to the instructions of the sanc- 
tuary ; but I now say, come not merely nor chiefly 
to hear the sermon, but come for public worship, 
urging and bringing the public with you. Come to 
the most sublime of all duties, to the most gracious 
of all privileges — to meet your Creator and Re- 
deemer, as He meets you in the forms of public 
prayer and praise. Come each, come all, to worship 



PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 59 

before God. Come, urging the whole community, 
as with the inspired invitation and warning. u O 
come, let us sing unto the Lord, let us make a joyful 
noise unto the Rock of our salvation. Let us come 
before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a 
joyful noise unto him with psalms. O come, let us 
worship and bow down, let us kneel before the Lord 
our Maker. For he is our God, and we are the 
people of his pasture and the sheep of his hand. 
To-day, if ye will hear his voice, harden not your 
heart." Come with fear, lest "he swear in his 
wrath that ye shall not enter into his rest." 

2. Meet the prayers and praises of the sanctuary 
with attention. The complaint is often made, that 
during the time of public prayer the mass of the 
people show no signs of attention, unless to every 
thing else besides the current service. Strange 
complaint ! A worshipping assembly mocking God 
with their mere presence in the house of prayer 
for all nations, while eye and thought range heedless 
of the object and even the very words of worship ! 

Give attention to singing, which is both prayer 
and praise. You must give, especially to this branch 
of divine service, preparatory attention, as an art 
which must be learned, and which can never be 
duly performed without continual diligence and 
continual public encouragement — without something 
more than occasional, momentary and fitful effort 
and patronage. Let there be a plan for the music 
of the temple — a " chief singer," and all the subordi- 
nate arrangements, and all the study and the practice 
which shall ensure the due performance of this 



60 PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 

sublime and subduing part of public worship. And 
then, let singing be attended to as worship , and 
not as a mere entertainment ; apprehending the 
strains of piety which are sung, and yielding all 
your faculties to the melting power of holy music, 
that you may flow into the moulds of a true heart 
and character. 

3. Fill out faithfully and truly the forms of public 
worship : or, in other words, adopt in very deed the 
methods of piety proffered in the sanctuary : enter 
the very way of holiness which it opens before you : 
let your heart and character be transfused into the 
very mould of the sanctuary. Yield yourself wholly 
to its prompting, enabling, and transforming forms. 
Ask not the leader of your devotions to frame such 
forms as may suit the unbelieving or half-believing ; 
to fit public worship to the actual public condition. 
Rather require and expect of him the forms of a 
true worship, as he is taught them in God's word, 
or as they are furnished to him in the scriptural 
provisions for the sanctuary which custom and the 
churches have established. Ask not the priest's lips 
to depart from knowledge, to sink the words of 
worship to you or to others whom you may 
think unqualified for these heaven-descended forms. 
Rather claim of yourself and of all, to rise in those 
forms, which God has given to raise men upward to 
himself. Fill those channels of his grace with a 
true repentance, and faith, and love, and holy reso- 
lution and praise. Make each sentence, each clause, 
each word your own, without limitation of numbers, 
yielding to the wide call: " Make a joyful noise 



PUBLIC WORSHIP ADAPTED TO MAN. 61 

unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with 
gladness : come before his presence with singing." 

4. Seek and expect a blessing with the forms 
of prayer and praise; — the prompting, enabling, 
and transforming influence of public worship. 
Where, if not here, shall the divine favor be sought 
and expected, as the dew? Where, if not here, 
taking the words of return, shall the people grow as 
the lily, and cast forth their roots as Lebanon? 
Where else shall there be a shadow of refreshment, 
reviving as the corn and growing as the vine? 
Where shall the people be found turning unto the 
Lord, if not with the words which he has given 
in the House of Prayer for all nations ? 



SERMON III 



AUGUST 19, 1838. 



THE SABBATH MORNING CALL. 



John 4 : 23. 

But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers 
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father 
seeketh such to worship Him. 

Eight hours ago, in the silence and darkness 
of the night, each in his own quiet chamber, we 
were locked up from all intercourse with one 
another, from all consciousness of our own exist- 
ence. No trace remains upon our memory but the 
vague impressions of our dreams. In that state of 
utter helplessness, of mental imbecility and incon- 
stancy, an unsleeping eye watched over us, and 
angel guards were around us, keeping us unharmed 
and undisturbed, while, according to the ordinance 
of nature, our wearied bodies and minds were 
reposing from the labors of the day and the week, 
that we might enter, alert, active, cheerful, entire, 
upon the duties and privileges of this sacred morn- 



THE SABBATH MORNING CALL. 63 

ing, this day of private and public worship hastening 
to open upon us. As we look back upon ourselves, 
prostrate upon our beds, the very image of death, 
and yet upon our guarded, preserved, and vigorous 
life — our blood flowing the while free and uninter- 
rupted along its countless channels — our lungs 
heaving every second, receiving and separating the 
vital air for each moment's renewal of the injured 
blood — and all the operations of our wonderful 
frames proceeding without check or hindrance, be- 
cause the Lord sustained us, and his angels guarded 
us — must we not say to one another, Behold how, 
before the morning dawned, and amid the darkness 
of the night, before we awoke to hear, the Father 
called us to worship Him in spirit and in truth — to 
anticipate the duty and privilege of this sacred day 
in our first waking thoughts — to say, in words fur- 
nished to the chief musician of ancient worship and 
to us, for the first worship of the bed-chamber, and 
for the gathered morning crowd at his holy place : 

" How precious are thy thoughts unto me ! how 
great is the sum of them ! If I should count them, 
they are more in number than the sand : when I 
awake I am still with thee .... Search me, O God, 
and know my heart : try me and know my thoughts : 
and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead 
me in the way everlasting." 

But think again : the great agents for your wel- 
fare require no rest. The earth, by the simplest of 
all contrivances, draws a curtain over the sun, and 
shuts up in continued succession the whole human 
family, in the darkness needful for their night's 



64 THE SABBATH MORNING CALL. 

repose; and, by the same simple contrivance, draws 
back the curtain gently, that it may not offend the 
eye, as soon as the necessities of nature are supplied. 
While we slept, while all our purposes and efforts 
were at pause, the earth was still turning on its 
axis, under the impulse of the unseen Mover, hasten- 
ing the dawning of the morning — the gentle and 
healing light soon to increase unto the perfect day — 
until the united influence of the light and repose 
re-opened our late wearied eyelids, and we awoke, 
cheerful and joyous, to behold the day. Our sense 
of fatigue was gone; the gloom which hung over 
us as we lay down, was passed away; our faculties 
seemed again our own and at our command, yield- 
ing again mysteriously to our will : our hands 
pliant — our feet ready — our eyes open — our ear alert 
— our tongue unloosed ! Surely, the Father sought 
us with the balmy light of this pleasant morning — 
in the sweet refreshment of our bodies and minds 
— in our free breathing of the reviving air — in our 
conscious vigor and activity — in the cheerfulness 
and joy of our first waking thoughts — to worship 
Him in spirit and in truth ; to adopt for ourselves 
the words which He has given us, that we may 
turn unto the Lord our God ; again anticipating in 
the bed-chamber the transforming forms furnished 
for public worship : 

" Hearken unto the voice of my cry, my King 
and my God : for unto thee will I pray. My voice 
shalt thou hear in the morning, O Lord : in the 
morning will I direct my prayer unto thee, and will 
look up. For thou art not a God that hath pleasure 



THE SAEBATH MORNING CALL. 65 

in wickedness, neither shall evil dwell with thee . . . 
But as for me, I will come into thy house in the 
multitude of thy mercy; and in thy fear will I 
worship toward thy holy temple." 

We arose from our beds, on which we had lain 
helpless as the dead, and set our feet once more 
firmly on God's footstool. We stretched out our 
late helpless hands, and put on the garments which 
our heavenly Father had provided for us. We 
came forth and refreshed ourselves at the waters 
which were gushing forth from his fountains, and 
with the food with which his bounty spread our 
tables ; and we began to rest the seventh day, ac- 
cording to his commandment, on the Sabbath which 
He made for man. What a scene occurred in all 
our families ! Instead of betaking ourselves to our 
usual occupations, all that are not necessary to life 
and comfort were laid aside. The tools of our daily 
labor were left untouched. The beasts which serve 
us were left grazing in the fields. Our sons and 
our daughters, our men-servants and our maid- 
servants, ceased from their work, that they might 
remember the Sabbath day and keep it holy. We 
retired (did we ?) for a season to our chambers, to 
the garden, the field, the grove, to read and meditate 
God's word, and to anticipate, in the secrecy of our 
own bosoms, the worship of the sanctuary. We 
arrayed ourselves in those neat and comely gar- 
ments, suited at once to our regard for one another 
and to our reverence for the house of God. If 
vanity may have been the sin and folly of any — 
if the love of show and parade filled any vain 
6* 



66 THE SABBATH MORNING CALL. 

heart — if any gloried in their own selves, and not in 
God, for whose worship they were attiring them- 
selves, let them pray to be forgiven. Yet, may we 
say — in the separation of this day from common 
employments to a holy rest ; amidst all the blessings 
of his providence ; in the neat and comely attire in 
which we tastefully decked ourselves, that we might 
honor God together in his sanctuary — the Father 
sought us to worship Him in spirit and in truth : 
proffering for our use, in the first hours of the morn- 
ing, in chamber, garden, field, or grove, that ancient 
Psalm for the Sabbath day, with all its assurance of 
transforming grace : 

" It is a good thing to give thanks unto the Lord, 
and to sing praises unto thy name, O thou Most 
High : to show forth thy loving-kindness in the 
morning, and thy faithfulness every night. Upon 
an instrument of ten strings, and upon the psaltery ; 
upon the harp with a solemn sound. For thou, 
Lord, hast made me glad with thy works : I will 
triumph in the works of thy hands. . . The righteous 
shall flourish like the palm-tree ; he shall grow like 
a cedar in Lebanon. Those that be planted in the 
house of the Lord, shall flourish in the courts of our 
God. They shall still bring forth fruit in old age ; 
they shall be fat and flourishing." 

But hark, the bell ! — in tones consecrated for ages 
to the holy purpose, summoning the multitude to 
public worship — in tones sweet as the morning of 
the Sabbath — one stroke renewing all our recollec- 
tions of childhood, and youth, and manhood, and 
old age, called again and again by that sweet and 



THE SABBATH MORNING CALL. 67 

solemn sound to prayer and praise; and seeming 
to our ear to make harmony with all countries and 
all times # called by the same sweet and solemn 
sound to worship God ! — the bell sent this morning 
through all our habitations its wonted sound — its 
ancient tones — its deep and hallowed call — to us and 
to all our population. It was the Father, speaking 
to our ear and to our heart, calling us to worship 
Him in spirit and in truth — calling forth, from our 
lips and from our heart, ere we approach, and as 
we approach the house of prayer for all people, from 
each, from all — 

" Open to me the gates of righteousness : I will 
go in to them and praise the Lord : this gate of the 
Lord, into which the righteous shall enter. I will 
praise thee, for thou hast heard me and art become 
my salvation. The stone which the builders refused 
is become the head-stone of the corner. This is the 
Lord's doing: it is marvellous in our eyes. This 
is the day which the Lord hath made; we will 
rejoice and be glad in it." 

At length, on every side, we came, we saw each 
other coming, to the house of prayer — to our Mount 
Zion — to the holy place of the tabernacles of the 
Most High ; seeming to say to one another, in a 
higher and more glorious sense than belonged to the 
ancient city of solemnities : M Let us go into the 
house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy 
gates, O Jerusalem." What a scene was just now 
passing ! — the ways thronged with a multitude, all 
tending from their various dwellings to this sacred 
place — the people cheering and urging each other to 



68 THE SABBATH BIORNING CALL. 

worship God! Man saying to man, neighbor to 
neighbor, brother to brother, in word and in deed, 
worship God! Ay, many, it may be, whose own 
hearts are not attuned to prayer and praise — 
prayerless in the closet, prayerless in the family, 
prayerless in the very house of prayer — and yet 
crowding to God's courts, and saying every man to 
his fellow, in the most expressive . of all language, 
Worship God ! . . . Rather, it is the Father, in the 
kindness and wisdom of that great public arrange- 
ment, which gathered these crowds from their homes, 
and brought them, a flowing multitude, to his house 
— it is the Father who has employed these living 
messengers to say one to another, as they come, 
Worship God : as if, on the way, and as they ap- 
proach nearer and nearer, every man were making 
every man welcome — as if all were prompted and 
aided to the transforming welcome in which we so 
often unite in full harmony : 

" How pleased and blest was I 

To hear the people cry, 
Come let us seek our God to-day : 

Yes, with a cheerful zeal, 

We '11 haste to Zion's hill, 
And there our vows and honors pay. 

May peace attend thy gate, 

And joy within thee wait, 
To bless the soul of every guest : 

The man who seeks thy peace, 

And wishes thine increase, 
A thousand blessings on him rest." 



THE SABBATH MORNING CALL. 69 

At length the Father met us in his house, and in 
the true and pure forms which Himself has given ; 
and which, conforming to his pattern, we have 
adapted to our use. And here, how does He call us, 
in those pure and true words, young men and 
maidens, old men and children, to pray and praise ! 
Each prayer, each hallelujah, is the Father's call, 
prompting and enabling us to worship Him in spirit 
and in truth, as in those inspired words, " God he 
merciful to me a sinner . . . Teach me to do thy 
will : thy Spirit is good : lead me into the land of 
uprightness . . . While I live I will praise the Lord. 
I will sing praises unto my God while I have any 
being;" or, as in our own adaptations : 

" may thy love inspire my tongue ! 
Salvation shall be all my song : 
And all my powers shall join to bless 
The Lord, my strength and righteousness." 

or, 

" We are his people, we his care, 

Our souls and all our mortal frame ; 
What lasting honors shall we rear, 
Almighty Maker, to thy name ? 

We '11 crowd thy gates, with thankful songs, 
High as the heavens our voices raise; 

And earth, with her ten thousand tongues, 
Shall fill thy courts with sounding praise." 

In this brief enumeration of the stages of the 
Father's urgency, we have failed to notice the wor- 
ship into whose high harmony we were called. 
When we fell asleep, and while we slept ; before we 



70 THE SAEBATH MORNING CALL. 

awoke — in the darkness and silence which gave our 
wearied faculties repose, that we might rise to wor- 
ship — there lacked not worshippers ; high harmony 
already rilling immensity, and claiming the harmony 
of all created things. The stars came forth at his 
call who made them : not one failed its part in that 
worship paid from their creation until now: no 
pause was there in those pure ministers — 

" Who all night long unwearied sing 
High praises to the Eternal King." 

And when the sun came forth like a bridegroom 
from his chamber, hiding in his nearer splendor the 
light of those distant spheres, it was to wake the 
praise of all created things, and chief of all to call 
forth all minds to join the mute harmony, and cry 
aloud to God. And at that morning call, nor tree, 
nor shrub, nor herb, nor leaf, nor flower, nor fruit, 
nor seed, nor bird, nor beast, nor land, nor sea, nor 
even man's fearful and wonderful frame, has with- 
held its notes of praise, joining the universal har- 
mony which calmed our sleeping, and cheered our 
waking hours, even to our meeting in the house of 
prayer. If there has been any jar in the full har- 
mony of the closing night and the rising day; if 
there has been any discord with the music of the 
spheres, and of the sun unfolding all God's earthly 
works in the light of day, it has been made basely 
by minds capable of all worship, and called forth 
to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. Our- 
selves have been at discord with that midnight 
harmony, which held worship while we slept, and 



THE SABBATH MORNING CALL. 71 

with that harmony of the morning amidst which we 
awoke, and arose, and came forth, and entered into 
the house of prayer for all nations, and in which we 
shall join, if we welcome with our heart and voice 
the forms which God gives us in his holy temple. 

And even now — while we are met in the house 
of prayer for all people — before the mercy-seat — 
under the wings of cherubim — near the great 
High Priest and Intercessor, that we may take 
the words which He has given us and turn to 
the Lord our God, worshipping in spirit and in 
truth — though we see them not, there are other 
worshippers; though we hear it not, there is other 
worship — high harmony above and around us, wide 
as the works of the Father. We may refuse — we 
may refuse, even in the house of prayer opened for 
all people — but all heaven above us, all earth around 
us, leads on the harmony which we refuse to join. 
The very air we breathe in this living assembly; 
the very light which falls upon our eye; the very 
insects which are flying in our midst ; the very dust 
floating in the sunbeam ; nay, our very selves — the 
eye, the ear, the heart, the lip, the living soul — pay 
their mute praise, though ive refuse to worship the 
Father in spirit and in truth ; though we refuse the 
call which began amidst the darkness of the night, 
and has followed us to the house of prayer for all 
people, and to the throne of grace itself! Worship 
is above us, around us : O that it were within us, 
and that it arose the expression of our hearts in 
spirit and in truth — that we yielded to the Father's 
call — that we accepted the words of return which 



72 THE SABBATH MORNING CALL. 

He has given us, and received his favor as the dew 
upon us ! — each, for who has been uncalled ? — all, 
for behold it is the house of prayer for all people ! 

Can there be young man or maiden, old man or 
child, that shall refuse to join the harmony of God's 
works, and to worship the Father in the purity 
of his own forms, in spirit and in truth ? — one who 
shall refuse to return, again and again, in the purity 
of a true worship 1 O come, and urge others to 
come with you, at every call of the Father, to wor- 
ship Him in his holy temple. Hear with atten- 
tion the forms by which He prompts and would 
enable your worship. Fill out those forms in spirit 
and in truth. Seek and expect the largest blessings 
with the transforming forms of public worship : and 
let not young man or maiden, old man or child, 
withhold the worship which the Father in infinite 
condescension seeks from his sinful children. 

How he has sought such worship, in all ages, I 
will next proceed to show ; and enforce the morning 
call, not as a single, unconnected invitation, but as 
uniting with the voice of the finished creation ; of 
the retiring waters of the deluge ; of the setting up 
of the Tabernacle ; of the building of the Temple ; 
of the Redeemer's coming to Mount Zion, and open- 
ing the temple for all nations; of the millennial 
throng crowding that wide temple, and of the last 
and everlasting worship. And may the Father find 
in us the worship that He seeks. 



SERMON IV 



AUGUST 26, 1838. 



THE CALL OF ALL AGES : THE ERAS OF PUBLIC 
WORSHIP. 



John 4: 23. 

But the hour cometh and now is, when the true worshippers 
shall worship the Father in spirit and in truth: for the Father 
seeketh such to worship Him. 

In aid of the transforming influence of public 
worship, we took note, the last Lord's day, of the 
Father's seeking us to worship him in spirit and in 
truth, especially by the whole kindness of a Sabbath 
morning, bringing us to his courts, and prompting 
and enabling us, in the forms of a true and spiritual 
worship, in harmony with all his works. Again 
the Sabbath morning has returned, and with it the 
Father's call, to worship him, to us all without 
exception. As many as God preserved during the 
darkness of the night, and awoke with the light of 
the morning, and fed, and clothed, and led to his 
house, and prompted with the forms of worship; 
so many does he call to worship him in spirit and in 
7 



74 THE CALL OF ALL AGES : 

truth ; so many would he inspire with the spirit of 
those forms which he proffers to our lips and to our 
hearts. "The house of prayer for all people" 
opens its doors and its privileges, not merely for 
those already prepared to worship in spirit and in 
truth, but to form such wwsMppers from those 
hitherto unprepared. It furnishes, whether to the 
outcasts of Israel or to the simiers of the Gentiles, 
words of return, and dews of increase, that they 
may grow as the lily, and send forth their roots 
as Lebanon. 

I come now, according to my closing intimation 
the last Lord's day, to enforce the Sabbath morning 
call, by regarding it, not as a single, unconnected 
invitation, but as urged by the voice of all ages — of 
all the past and all the future — of all time and 
all eternity. Let us then — called anew to worship 
the Father, in the loving-kindness of this morning, 
amidst its loud and soft harmonies — open our ear to 
the call of the finished creation; of the retiring 
waters of the deluge; of the tabernacle in the 
wilderness; of the temple on Mount Zion; of the 
house of prayer opened for all people ; of the millen- 
nial throng to the mountain of the Lord's house, 
and of the eternal temple. 

Before entering upon these considerations, let me 
direct your thoughts to the impressive circumstances 
of this morning, which have already given peculiar 
form to our worship. We miss from his accustomed 
place in our own temple, one of our most regular 
and attentive worshippers : and his place will re- 
main vacant ; he will never enter again the temple 



THE ERAS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 75 

of our earthly worship. As we take our leave of 
him, perhaps never to refer to him again in this 
place, let me commend, as peculiarly suitable to our 
present subject, his worthy example, in his constant 
and serious attendance on the forms of God's wor- 
ship. It is not ours to decide whether he has passed 
hence into the company of perfect worshippers — 
from our temple, to the heavenly temple. Thus 
much, however, I may say for the benefit of all, 
and especially of my elder friends. If the religious 
thoughtfulness and earnestness of many years, with 
growing consistency of character ; if the expressions 
of a lively and humble faith, which marked his last 
illness ; and if the conflict with Satan, which seem- 
ingly, as in the case of the Saviour, darkened his 
last days : if these manifestations to us have issued 
in an entrance into the upper temple ; then was it in 
these courts that he was sought by the Father, and 
by means of these transforming forms was he pre- 
pared for a temple from which he will go no more 
out for ever. May we who remain, and especially 
the elders .of the people, so faithfully meet these 
forms of worship, and so flourish in the courts of 
our God, that no doubt will linger among those who 
may survive, that we shall flourish in the heavenly 
temple for ever. 

I proceed, with earnest desires to aid you in this 
high purpose, to speak of the seeking of the Father, 
in the various steps of his mercy in the history of 
man. 

1. The finished creation, as at first, ever calls 
man to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. 



76 THE CALL OF ALL AGES : 

The day for peculiar, for social worship, was set 
apart in the very infancy of our race, when not in 
vain God sought worshippers in spirit and in truth, 
in the fair temple which his hands had reared; and 
which, had the race been steadfast in their privilege, 
would have been wide as the world — an earthly 
paradise, and yet a holy temple, filled with pure 
worshippers ! i ' And on the seventh day God ended 
his work which he had made : and God blessed the 
seventh day, and sanctified it." The worship of 
earth, no doubt, began on that first sacred morning, 
in harmony with the worship of heaven, "when the 
morning stars sang together, and all the sons of God 
shouted for joy." Shall we say, the notes of that 
first worship, of the yet pure earth, linger still in 
this lower world ? that they reach us in the soft 
whisperings of every Sabbath morning, recalling our 
wandering hearts to worship God, with those morn- 
ing stars, with those sons of God who led the wor- 
ship of the finished creation. So it seemed to our 
great Christian poet : — 

" Creation and the six days' acts they sung — 
Great are thy works, Jehovah, infinite 
Thy power : what thought can measure thee ? or tongue 

Relate thee ? 

Who can impair thee, mighty King, or bound 
Thy empire ? easily the proud attempt 
Of spirits apostate, and their counsels vain, 
Thou hast repelled, while impiously they thought 
Thee to diminish — and from thee withdraw 
The number of thy worshippers. Who seeks 
To lessen thee, against his purpose, serves 
To manifest the more thy might : his evil 



THE ERAS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 77 

Thou usest, and from thence createst more good. 
— Witness this new made world, another heaven, 
From heaven-gate not far, founded in view 
On the clear Hyaline, the glassy sea; 
Of amplitude almost immense, with stars 
Numerous, and every star perhaps a world 
Of destined habitation. But thou knowest 
Their seasons; among these the seat of men, 
Earth with her nether ocean circumfused 
Their pleasant dwelling-place. Thrice happy men, 
And sons of men, whom God hath thus advanced, 
Created in his image, there to dwell 

And worship Him ! 

And multiply a race of worshippers 

Holy and just : Thrice happy if they know 

Their happiness, and persevere upright. 

So sung they — and the empyrean rung 
With hallelujahs : Thus was Sabbath kept." 

The fall of man left him without a heart to wor- 
ship, shrinking before the voice of the Lord God, as 
he walked among the trees of the garden. No 
wonder that it cast him forth from paradise, and 
closed the first fair temple of earthly worship ! 
Blessed be His name, that the Father followed the 
outcast, and recalled him to worship, under the 
promise of redemption from sin, and in modes 
suited, progressively, to the stages of human re- 
covery. The call of the finished creation was 
renewed with the first promise of redemption, in the 
earliest form of visible and social worship, seeking 
men to worship the Father in spirit and in truth. 

Thus Abel, acknowledging his sin in the blood of 
his offering, came believing and obeying ; prompted, 
7*= 



78 THE CALL OF ALL AGES : 

aided, and transformed, when he brought of the 
firstlings of his flock, and of the fat thereof. The 
earliest mode of worship was formative in its design 
and tendency : and being welcomed by faith, wrought 
righteousness in the worshipper, first on record in 
the annals of fallen man — an example to all ages. 
' f By faith, Abel offered unto God a more excellent 
sacrifice than Cain, by which he obtained witness 
that he was righteous, God testifying of his gifts: 
and by it, he being dead yet speaketh." 

Yes, and even Cain — in the approaches of a false, 
disobedient, and unbelieving worship — is a witness 
to that early seeking of the Father, and not less to 
the formative design and tendency of the visible and 
therefore social worship first proffered to sinful man. 
The first recusant to the appointed mode of worship, 
the first recusant of its design and tendency in form- 
ing the character, stands forth a warning to all ages. 
"If thou doest well, shalt thou not be accepted; but 
if not, then sin lieth at the door!"' From the fin- 
ished creation a voice issues, calling sinful man to 
the worship of the Father, and warning the recusant 
of his character and his doom ! 

2. The subsiding waters of the deluge, and the 
re-appearing earth, renewed upon the new world, 
and upon all ages, the call to worship the Father. 

Plainly, though the notices are brief, the day of 
social worship was " remembered ? ' by the eight 
persons floating in the ark — the seed of all genera- 
tions. The first accounts of preparation to re-occupy 
the earth, are at intervals of seven days, marked, no 
doubt, by that day of rest which God originally 



THE ERAS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 79 

sanctified and hallowed — by their Sabbath? s worship. 
Each seventh day, as the sun arose over the wide 
waste of waters, it reminded them of the Sabbath of 
the old world, and called them in faith to adopt it 
as the Sabbath of the new. The first tokens of the 
re-appearing world were sought and received, by the 
heir of the righteousness of faith, as the encourage- 
ment and the pledge of Sabbaths sanctified and hal- 
lowed, shedding their influence over all the days 
and over all the employments of life, and requiring 
worship of all generations, in the wide temple of the 
new world. "And Noah stayed yet other seven 
days, and again he sent forth the dove out of the 
ark, and the dove came in to him in the evening ; 
and lo ! in her mouth was an olive-leaf plucked off. 
So he knew that the waters were abated from off 
the earth. And he stayed yet other seven days, and 
sent forth the dove, which returned not to him any 
more." The seventh day, sanctified and hallowed 
from the first, thus intimated as a fixed day of 
worship by the customs of this righteous family, we 
cannot help supposing, also, must have been the 
day which was signalized by their first social wor- 
ship, after they had been divinely called forth from 
the ark, and by the gracious acceptance of that 
worship, offered in spirit and in truth. " And Noah 
builded an altar unto the Lord, and took of every 
clean beast, and of every clean fowl, and offered 
burnt offerings on the altar. And the Lord smelled 
a sweet savor, and the Lord said in his heart, I will 
not again curse the ground for man's sake. While 
the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and 



80 THE CALL OF ALL AGES I 

cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day 
and night, shall not cease. And God said, This is 
the token of the covenant which I make between 
me and you, and every living creature that is with 
you, for perpetual generations : / do set my bow in 
the cloud . . . And the bow shall be in the cloud, 
and I will look upon it, that I may remember the 
everlasting covenant between God and every living 
creature of all flesh that is upon the earth." Shall 
we say that the seeking of the Father to be wor- 
shipped in spirit and in truth — for social worship — 
for the worship of the Sabbath and the sanctuary, 
in appointed ordinances, as over the retiring waters 
of the deluge — is renewed and perpetuated to all 
succeeding generations, by returning seasons , by 
seed-time and harvest, cold and heat, summer and 
winter, day and night, and by the sweet visitings of 
the summer rainbow — such as lately, at the setting 
of the sun, spanned us in a perfect semicircle of 
beauty, unsurpassed by its first glory, when, over 
the altar and the sacrifice of Noah, it was set in the 
clouds, calling the new world, in all generations, to 
worship the Father. 

And this call of the new world has been handed 
down to us by the recorded example of the true 
worshippers, purified thereby ; and even by the 
false worship, which, from the plains of Shinaar, 
has flowed forth upon all nations and all ages. 
Melchizedek utters it, the priest of the most high 
God, the example and the guide of a pure worship 
among the base inhabitants of the cities of the plain. 
Job utters it from the land of Uz, himself fearing 



THE ERAS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 81 

God and eschewing evil, and offering burnt-offerings 
according to the number of his sons, and praying 
with acceptance for his offending friends. Abraham 
utters it, the father of the faithful, of all who wor- 
ship God in spirit and in truth — leaving the gods 
which his fathers worshipped on the other side of 
the flood, and at God's command building an altar 
at Bethel, and calling on the name of the Lord. 
Moses utters it, when he leads out the chosen tribes 
from under the hand of Pharaoh, and from the gods 
of the Egyptians, to worship the Lord God of their 
fathers in the wilderness. All nations and all times 
utter it, even while they " change the truth of God 
into a lie, his glory into an image made like to cor- 
ruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, 
and creeping things : worshipping and serving the 
creature more than the Creator, who is blessed for 
ever." For, whence came the idolatry of all na- 
tions and all times, but from the lesson of the over- 
flowing and then retiring waters of the deluge 1 
The true worshippers of the new world, and the 
recusants of the true worship, call upon all ages, 
and upon us, to worship the Father in spirit and in 
truth. 

3. The setting up of the tabernacle and the ap- 
pointment of the priesthood, was another remarkable 
step in the seeking of the Father to be worshipped 
in spirit and in truth. 

The arrangement to which we now refer, giving 
form and enlargement to the typical institutions, 
and a centre to the social worship of the seed of 
Abraham, had the twofold design of forming true 



82 THE CALL OF ALL AGES : 

worshippers from that chosen race, and of being 
thereby a conspicuous specimen for the world ; that 
progressively, and at length fully, all people might 
be gathered to the house of prayer. The ordinances 
of worship must needs be first localized and limited, 
that they might at length overspread the earth ; 
must first shed their glory over the seed of Abra- 
ham, that in him and his seed all the nations of the 
earth might be blessed. The first burst of worship 
over the closing sea, indicated the high purpose for 
which they went forth — the purpose of those "ordi- 
nances of divine service" soon to be proffered for 
their use. "I will sing unto the Lord, for he hath 
triumphed gloriously : the horse and his rider hath he 
thrown into the sea. The Lord is my strength and 
song, and he is become my salvation. He is my 
God, and I will prepare him a habitation .... Who 
is like unto thee, O Lord, among the gods ? Who is 
like to thee, glorious in holiness, fearful in praises, 
doing wonders 1 Thou in thy mercy hast led forth 
the people which thou hast redeemed : thou hast 
guided them in thy strength unto thy holy habitation. 
. . . Thou shalt bring them in and plant them in the 
mountain of thine inheritance, in the place, O Lord, 
which thou hast made for thee to dwell in : in the 
sanctuary, O Lord, which thy hands have estab- 
lished" 

The new arrangement thus anticipated, is but the 
extension and establishment, the growing develop- 
ment of the first institution of worship ; itself pre- 
paratory to other stages of progress in other fulness 
of times. The directions for setting up the taberna- 



THE ERAS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 83 

cle are given in connection with the Sabbath which 
God " made for man," which he originally sanctified 
and hallowed. " And the glory of the Lord abode 
upon Mount Sinai, and the cloud covered it six 
days; and the seventh day he called unto Moses, 
out of the midst of the cloud : and the sight of the 
glory of the Lord was like a devouring fire on the 
top of the moimt, in the eyes of the children of 
Israel : and Moses went into the midst of the cloud, 
and gat him up into the mount." The tabernacle 
itself was " a worldly sanctuary" for " ordinances 
of divine service." Its inmost recess contained a 
mercy-seat of pure gold, overshadowed with the 
cherubim of glory, and covering the ark of the testi- 
mony — designed as the special presence-place of the 
Lord God of Israel. "And there I will meet with 
thee, and I will commune with tbee from above the 
mercy-seat, from between the two cherubims which 
are upon the ark of the testimony." There, too, 
were the sacrifices to be offered — "the blood of 
goats and calves, and the ashes of an heifer." . . . 
"There shall be a continual burnt-offering throughout 
your generations, at the door of the tabernacle of the 
congregation before the Lord . . And there I will meet 
with the children of Israel, and the tabernacle shall 
be sanctified with my glory." And there, too, 
the priests were "ordained to offer gifts and 
sacrifices" for the people ; themselves cleansed and 
purified, that they might intimate to all the purpose 
of worship, borne alway on the front of the high- 
priest: "And thou shalt make a plate of pure gold, 
and grave upon it, like the engravings of a signet, 



84 THE CALL OF ALL AGES : 

Holiness to the Lord. And it shall be upon Aaron's 
forehead, that Aaron may bear the iniquity of the 
holy things, which the children of Israel shall hal- 
low in all their holy gifts : and it shall be always 
upon his forehead, that they may be accepted before 
the Lord." And thence the blessing: " The Lord 
bless thee and keep thee ; the Lord make his face 
shine upon thee, and be gracious mito thee; the 
Lord lift up his countenance upon thee, and give 
thee peace." And with it ever the presence of the 
Lord : "And it came to pass, when the ark set for- 
ward, that Moses said, Rise up, Lord, and let thine 
enemies be scattered, and let them that hate thee 
flee before thee. . . And when it rested, he said, 
Return, O Lord, unto the many thousands of 
Israel." 

What a scene was that in the waste and howling 
wilderness, calling the tribes of Israel, and through 
them all nations and all times, to worship God ! 
Ages have passed away, and Horeb and Sinai stand 
as everlasting rocks, barren and desolate for ever; 
yet glowing still, in the imaginations and affections 
of men, with the glory of the Lord, which filled the 
holy place — with the glory of the ancient institutions. 
That waste and howling wilderness is still radiant 
with the glory that rested on the tabernacle ; along 
the track of their pilgrimage : on those ordinances of 
divine service which call us and all people to wor- 
ship God ! 

The purpose of the tabernacle institution — of the 
new step of God's mercy, calling first the chosen 
tribes and all people to worship him in spirit and in 



THE ERAS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 85 

truth, is strikingly manifest in the whole Psalm 
which David delivered, " to thank the Lord, into the 
hands of Asaph and his brethren;" when " David 
gathered all Israel together to bring up the ark of 
the Lord unto his place ;" when " he left there before 
the ark of the covenant of the Lord, Asaph and his 
brethren, to minister before the ark continually," 
and "Zadok the priest, and his brethren the priests 
before the tabernacle of the Lord," to offer burnt- 
offerings unto the Lord upon the altar of burnt- 
offerings, and with them Heman and Jeduthun, and 
the rest that were chosen, to give thanks to the 
Lord, because his mercy endureth for ever: "Give 
thanks unto the Lord; call upon his name; make 
known his deeds among the people. Give unto the 
Lord the glory due unto his name; bring an offering 
and come before him ; worship the Lord in the beauty 
of holiness. Let the heavens be glad, and let the 
earth rejoice; and let men say among the nations, 
The Lord reigneth . . . . O give thanks unto the 
Lord, for he is good; for his mercy endureth for 
ever. And say ye, Save us, O God of our salvation, 
and gather us together, and deliver us from among 
the heathen, that we may give thanks unto thy holy 
name, and glory in thy praise. Blessed be the Lord 
God of Israel for ever and ever : and all the people 
said, Amen, and praised the Lord." 

4. The building of the temple on Mount Zion was 

but the establishing and exalting those "ordinances 

of divine service" which immediately preceded, and 

may be reviewed as a special and glorious instance 

8 



86 THE CALL OF ALL AGES \ 

of the seeking of the Father to be worshipped in 
spirit and in truth. 

In order to make the ' ' ordinances of divine ser- 
vice" permanent and conspicuous in the eyes of 
Israel and all surrounding nations, the ark, at length, 
was no longer "to dwell in curtains," but a house 
of prayer for the chosens eed, and for the stranger, 
too, was to be builded. David, in anticipation, set 
himself to the work of preparation, that "the house 
might be exceeding magnincal — of fame and of 
glory throughout all countries:" charging Solomon, 
his son, in view of the high purpose of the temple — 
' ' Now set your heart and your soul to seek the Lord 
your God: arise therefore, and build ye the sanctu- 
ary of the Lord God, to bring the ark of the covenant 
of the Lord, and the holy vessels of God into the 
house that is to be built for the name of the Lord." 

The commencement of the temple worship was 
such as to indicate especially God's saving presence 
among men ; and the ordinances of divine service, at 
this new stage of mercy, as in all the past and in 
all the future, fitted and designed to bring men to 
God: — "And the priests brought in the ark of 
the covenant of the Lord unto his place, to the 
oracle of the house, into the most holy place, even 
under the wings of the cherubim .... And it came 
to pass, as the trumpeters and singers were as one, 
to make one sound to be heard in praising and 
thanking the Lord, and when they lifted up their 
voice, with the trumpets, and cymbals, and instru- 
ments of music, and praised the Lord, saying, For 
he is good, for his mercy endureth for ever; that 



THE ERAS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 87 

then the house was filled with a cloud, even the 
house of the Lord, so that the priests could not 
stand to minister, by reason of the cloud ; for the 
glory of the Lord had filled the house of God. 

"Then spake Solomon, The Lord hath said that 
he would dwell in the thick darkness . . . But I have 
built a house of habitation for thee, and a place for 
thy dwelling for ever . . . But will God in very deed 
dwell with men on the earth ? Behold heaven and 
the heaven of heavens cannot contain thee, how 
much less this house which I have built. . . Now, my 
God, let, I beseech thee, thine eyes be open, and let 
thine ears be attent upon the prayer that is made in 
this place. Now, therefore, arise thou and the ark 
of thy strength. Let thy priests, O Lord, be clothed 
with salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness." 

The answer to this prayer crowned the mercy in 
which, in the temple service, God condescended to 
meet man: — "And the Lord appeared unto Solo- 
mon by night, and said unto him, I have heard thy 
prayer, and have chosen this place to myself as a 
house of sacrifice. If my people, which are called 
by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, 
and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, 
then will I hear from heaven, and heal their land." 

This seeking of the Father by the tabernacle and 
temple, by the settled and established " ordinances 
of divine service," has come to us in the examples 
of a true and accepted worship, reaching down to 
the opening of " the house of prayer for all nations," 
and blending with the voice which now calls all 
men to worship in that universal temple. O yes ! 



OO THE CALL OF ALL AGES : 

there were true and spiritual worshippers in the 
days of the tabernacle and temple, meeting and 
communing with God above the mercy-seat: as 
Moses, and Joshua, and David, and Solomon, and 
Asa, and Jehoshaphat, and Hezekiah, and Josiah, 
and the prophets, and many of the people with 
them ; and even when the temple was laid waste, 
there were Daniel and his three companions at dis- 
tant Babylon, and Nehemiah and the sorrowing 
captives, hanging their harps upon the willows, and 
Weeping when they remembered Zion; and when 
the time for the temple to be rebuilt drew on, there 
were a multitude ready to arise and build, and to 
crowd the renewed walls with prayer and praise. 
"When the builders laid the foundation of the tem- 
ple of the Lord," the priests, in their apparel, with 
their trumpets, and the Levites, the sons of Asaph, 
with cymbals, sang together by course, in praising 
and giving thanks unto the Lord, "because he is 
good and his mercy endureth for ever towards 
Israel. And all the people shouted with a great 
shout, when they praised the Lord, because the 
foundation of the house of the Lord was laid. But 
many of the priests and Levites, and chief of the 
fathers, who were ancient men that had seen the 
first house, when the foundation of this house was 
laid before their eyes, wept with a loud voice : and 
many shouted aloud for joy; so that the people 
could not discern the noise of the shout of joy 
from the noise of the weeping of the people : 
for the people shouted with a loud shout, and 
the noise was heard afar offr while, amidst the 



THE ERAS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 89 

mingled shouting and weeping, the voice of the 
prophet is heard, passing down the example of the 
temple worshippers to the "house of prayer for all 
people :" — " Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Yet once, 
it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and 
the earth, and the sea, and the dry land, and I will 
shake all nations, and the Desire of all nations shall 
come, and I will fill this house with glory, saith the 
Lord of hosts . . . The glory of this latter house shall 
be greater than of the former, saith the Lord of 
hosts ; and in this place will I give peace, saith the 
Lord of hosts." And when the Desire of all nations 
came, there were found many at the temple, waiting 
for the Consolation of Israel, with Anna and with 
Simeon, closing up the example of the worship of 
tabernacle and temple; calling all nations to the 
house of prayer ; as when Simeon said — u Lord, now 
lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according 
to thy word : for mine eyes have seen thy salvation, 
which thou hast prepared before the face of all peo- 
ple ; a light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of 
thy people Israel." The whole history of the wor- 
ship at the tabernacle and temple, until the Desire 
of all nations came, and all the forms of prayer and 
praise, meeting the infirmities of men, which are 
passed down to us from the sweet singer of Israel, 
and all the patriarchs and prophets — the very forms 
we employ — call on all ages, and on us, to worship 
God. 

Yes, and the memorials of false worship, cotem- 
porary with tabernacle and temple — the ruins of 
those Egyptian temples from which the tribes went 
8* 



90 THE CALL OF ALL AGES '. 

forth to set up the tabernacle in the wilderness, and 
the ruins of the temples of Greece and Rome, the 
abiding wonders of the world — the history of wor- 
shipping nations, and the very prayers and hymns 
of false worship recorded in the memorials of ancient 
times — join the voice of tabernacle and temple, and 
call us and all people to worship God. 

5. The opening of the house of prayer for all 
people, was the last ancl greatest step in the kind- 
ness of the Father, seeking men to worship him in 
spirit and in truth. 

At length, in the fulness of times, the Desire of 
all nations came, and the temple was rilled with 
the glory of the Lord of hosts — thenceforward to 
become the House of prayer for all people. For 
this purpose, Jesus suffered and died, and when the 
darkness cleared away, which covered the last ago- 
nies of the Infinite Redeemer, the vail of the temple 
was seen, " rent in twain from the top to the bottom," 
and "the way to the holiest of all made manifest" 
in the sight of all nations. Thenceforward, every 
hill, and valley, and plain, in the wide world, was 
to have its perfect high 'priest, its sinless sacrifice, 
its new covenant, writing the law upon the heart; 
and "boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood 
of Jesus, by a new and living way which he hath 
consecrated for us" — himself, touched with the feel- 
ing of our infirmities, holy, harmless, and undefiled, 
ever living to make intercession for us, and requiring 
the mutual urgency of man on man : " Let us there- 
fore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may 
obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need." 



THE ERAS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 91 

He arose, and ascended up on high, entering 

into heaven itself, "now to appear in the presence 
of God for us;" to receive of the Father the promise 
of the Holy Ghost ; filling the house of prayer for 
all people with his glory. " Not many days after, 
when the day of Pentecost was fully come, there 
came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing, mighty 
wind, and it filled all the house where the disciples 
were sitting : and there appeared unto them cloven 
tongues, like as of fire, and it sat upon each of them. 
And they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and 
began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit 
gave them utterance." Thenceforward, the disciples 
were to be witnesses unto Jesus, unto " the uttermost 
parts of the earth," endowed with power by the 
Holy Ghost upon them. Thenceforward, the gospel 
was to be preached among all nations, "with the 
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." Thence- 
forward, "the Spirit of adoption" was to prompt 
and enable the cry, " Abba, Father," and the prayer 
which the Redeemer proffers to man — "Our Father, 
which art in heaven" — with all prayers and praises, 
which, from all ancient worshippers, through his 
prayers and supplications, are passed down to us. 
Thenceforward, the house of prayer for all people 
was to be filled with the glory of the Spirit, with the 
power of the Holy Ghost, fulfilling the prophecy ; 
"And it shall come to pass in the last days, that I 
will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh. And it shall 
come to pass, that whosoever shall call upon the 
name of the Lord shall be saved. For in Mount 
Zion and in Jerusalem shay, be deliverance, as the 



92 THE CALL OF ALL AGES : 

Lord hath said :" — fulfilling the prophetic invitation 
to needy man, "Ho, every one that thirsteth, come 
ye to the waters " — "Seek ye the Lord, while he 
may be found ;" and the prophetic assurance, " Also 
the sons of the stranger that join themselves to the 
Lord, even them will I bring to my holy mountain, 

and make them joyful in my house of prayer : 

for my house shall be called a house of prayer for 
all people." 

It is at this point that the call of all ages unites 
upon our ear, in harmony with the "morning stars 
and all the sons of God." Amidst the wide and 
passive harmony of all his works, never at pause, 
the voice of temple, and tabernacle, and altar, min- 
gles with the pure worship of an innumerable com- 
pany of angels, continuing from the very morning 
of creation — from age to age, the imperfect worship 
of earth blending with the perfect worship of heaven. 
Is it not this high harmony — is it not this universal 
call — this call of all people and all times, of all on 
earth and all in heaven — this call of righteous Abel, 
leading in his train all human worshippers, and of 
Jesus, with the blood of sprinkling, opening the 
house of prayer and filling it with the Holy Ghost — 
to which the apostle wakes our ear? — "We are 
come unto Mount Zion, and unto the city of the 
living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innu- 
merable company of angels ; to the general assembly 
and church of the first-born, which are written in 
heaven; and to God, the Judge of all, and to the 
spirits of just men made perfect, and to Jesus the 
Mediator of the new covenant, and to the blood of 



THE ERAS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 93 

sprinkling, which speaketh better things than that 
of Abel."" 

From this era — the opening of the house of prayer 
for all people — the glory remains in "the gospel, 
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven" — in 
" the word of God which liveth and abideth for 
ever" — signified to man by the ordinances of the 
Lord's house, by the sacraments of baptism and the 
Lord's supper, by the continued gift of pastors and 
teachers, by the forms of worship passed down from 
tabernacle and temple, from our Lord and his apos- 
tles, and by the house of prayer builded and re- 
builded in all lands. True, as of the ancient temple 
first filled with the glory of the Lord, and of its 
ordinances of divine service, so have the temples 
and ordinances of the Christian world been perverted 
and abused : yet, either in invitation or rebuke, 
either in mercy or in judgment, the call to worship 
the Father in spirit and in truth, has been heard 
amidst perversion and abuse as of old, so through 
the long period of the Christian dispensation. Those 
ancient fanes, covering all Europe, in which saints, 
and relics, and the Virgin, and the cross, receive the 
worship which is due to God alone ; each spire, 
each window, each column, each long drawn aisle, 
each altar ; the forms of worship still retained from 
holy Scripture and from purer times; each sacra- 
ment, frown on the perversion and the abuse, and 
call aloud for true worship to the true God. Yes, 
and raised as like temples have been, almost over 
the Pagan world — in Asia, in America, amidst like 
abuse and perversion — what do they but send forth 



94 THE CALL OF ALL AGES : 

to all nations the call, sooner or later to be obeyed, 
to worship the Father in spirit and in truth ? Even 
amidst the false worship of the Catholic world, ever 
aiming to spread itself over the whole earth, the 
call goes forth, in temples and ordinances abused 
and perverted, to adopt, in every language, the 
prayer now said and sung in a tongue unknown — 
"Our Father, which art in heaven; hallowed be 
thy name ; thy kingdom come ; thy will be done on 
earth as it is in heaven " — the Te Deum Laud a:\ius, 
" The holy church throughout all the world doth ac- 
knowledge thee ; the Father of an infinite majesty ; 
thine honorable, true, and only Son , also the Holy 
Ghost the Comforter." 

But if all this be true of temples perverted and 
abused, how much more in proportion as each house 
of prayer is occupied truly with the ordinances of 
divine service ! how much more amongst ourselves, 
even from our own frail and changing temples ; 
from our own varying forms of worship ; and espe- 
cially from the forms and temples of our mother 
church — the prayers and praises of the church 
throughout all ages, requiring the worship of each 
new race ; and the massive temples standing amidst 
the graves and the dust of many generations, claim- 
ing to be the temples for the worship of the living ! 
"Our Father, which art in heaven" — how it meets 
our ear and our heart, calling us into the harmony 
of worship in all times ! How are we called forth 
into the harmony of all worship on earth and in 
heaven, while we hear and say, " To thee all angels 
cry aloud ; the heavens and all the powers therein ; 



THE ERAS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 95 

to thee, cherubim and seraphim continually do cry, 
Holy, holy, Lord God of Sabaoth ; heaven and earth 
are full of the majesty of thy glory. The glorious 
company of the apostles praise thee ; the goodly 
fellowship of the prophets praise thee; the noble 
army of martyrs praise thee. The holy church 
throughout all the world doth acknowledge Thee." 

But this discourse must not be closed without 
referring to the future — to the predicted worship yet 
to be paid by all nations on earth, and to the final 
worship in the eternal temple : sure and certain 
visions, urging us in our day and generation to 
worship the Father in spirit and in truth. 

See, in the vision of prophecy, how in the progress 
of ages, there will arise a race of worshippers pure 
and true, and in shame and remorse anticipate their 
pure and true worship. Instead of joining the athe- 
istical crowd around you, or those w^ho have passed 
to their account, join the greater multitudes rising 
before your eyes in the visions of prophecy: — " And 
it shall come to pass, that from one new moon to 
another, and from one Sabbath to another, shall all 
flesh come to worship before me, saith the Lord." 
" And the inhabitants of one city shall go to another, 
saying, Let us go speedily to pray before the Lord, 
and to seek the Lord of hosts. I will go also : yea, 
many people and strong nations shall come to seek 
the Lord of hosts in Jerusalem, and to pray before 
the Lord." The call of all past ages — of creation — 
of the new world — of the tabernacle — of the temple 
— of the house of prayer for all people — is echoed 
back from ages yet to come, in the full harmony of 



96 THE CALL OF ALL AGES : 

prayer and praise, that we, ere we pass away, may 
worship the Father in spirit and in truth. 

See, also, in sure vision, the worship of the eternal 
temple, calling us to worship here, that we may 
enter therein, and go no more out for ever : " And he 
carried me away in the spirit to a great and high 
mountain, and showed me that great city, the New 
Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God. 
And I saw no temple therein; for the Lord God 
Almighty and the Lamb are the temple of it. And 
the nations of them that are saved shall walk in the 
light of it : and the kings of the earth do bring their 
glory and honor into it : and there shall in no wise 
enter into it any thing which defileth, neither what- 
soever worketh abomination or maketh a lie, but 
they which are written in the Lamb's book of life." 
"Blessed are they that do his commandments, that 
they may have a right to the tree of life, and may 
enter in through the gates into the city." Join not 
the atheistical crowd around you, nor the worship- 
pers who worship not; but anticipate the worship 
of the eternal temple ; lest your lot be with the dogs 
and sorcerers, and the denied, who shall be cast out 
for ever. 

Thus the Father seeketh all men to worship him. 
By the mercies of the night and of the morning, 
bringing us to his temple; by institutions of worship 
renewed and perfecting in all ages; by the rent vail, 
opening the house of prayer for all people, and the 
Holy Ghost filling it with glory; by the vision of 
all people coming to worship before him in future 
times; and by the pure and ceaseless worship of 



THE ERAS OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 97 

eternity ; the Father calls us to worship him in spirit 
and in truth — urging his claim by the continued and 
growing call of man on man, from the first voice of 
Abel, to the full and ceaseless harmony of the ever- 
lasting temple. 

Alas, the answer made by man to man — to the 
worshippers of all ages past — of time future, and 
of eternity — to the Father, claiming by them to be 
worshipped in spirit and in truth ! What multi- 
tudes, baser than the Pagan world, refuse even the 
outward forms of worship, polluting God's Sabbaths, 
and doing their own pleasure on his holy day ! And 
of those who do come to the sanctuary, how many 
are utterly insensible to the claims of worship ; who 
do not try to worship according to the forms of the 
Lord's house ; who do not try to render the con- 
formed temper in every sentence uttered by the 
minister— in every line chanted by the choir ! 
Amidst the hundreds visibly at prayer, how few even 
try to pray ! Amidst the hundreds visibly entranced 
in that high harmony, how few try to praise ! And 
of those who would say they try, how few prepare 
themselves to worship in spirit and in truth, by 
"clean hands and a pure heart;" by ceasing to do 
evil, and learning to do well; by welcoming the 
spirit of adoption, that they may cry, "Abba, 
Father ! " 

And now, what say you ? If God has raised for 
you his earthly temple, and prepared for you a 
method of piety, a way of approach to him, a mould 
for the heart and character; if he has called you 
this morning into the house of prayer opened for all 
9 



98 THE CALL OF ALL AGES. 

nations, amidst the harmony of all his works ; if he 
calls you by all the past and all the future, to 
worship him in spirit and in truth; can there be 
young man or maiden, old man or child, who will 
refuse to worship ? With no light assurance, I offer 
you this privilege — the privilege of worshipping in 
the house of prayer for all nations. Sure as the 
dying groan which rent the vail — as the resurrection 
which restored our ever-living High Priest — as the 
gift of the Spirit descending from the right hand of 
the Father — sure as all the types which preceded 
the death, and resurrection, and ascension of our 
Lord — sure as all the glories which have followed — 
sure as the pillars of the eternal temple — is the 
privilege to which you are called in this house of 
prayer. Will you refuse 1 

Rather, let me say, with no light authority do I 
require your worship — young men and maidens, old 
men and children. In the name of Him who cre- 
ated this earth, that it might be his temple — who 
appointed the altar of Abel — the tabernacle of Moses 
— the temple of Solomon — and who opened the 
house of prayer for all people, and whom all heaven 
will worship eternally — I require you to worship ! 
Dare young man or maiden, old man or child, refuse? 
u O come, let us worship and bow down: let us 
kneel before the Lord, our Maker : for he is our God, 
and we are the people of his pasture, and the sheep 
of his hand." " To-day, if ye will hear his voice, 
harden not your hearts." 



SERMON V. 



SEPTEMBER 2, 1838. 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 



Ephesians 4 : 11, 12. 

And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, 
evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers; for the perfecting 
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the edifying of 
the body of Christ. 



I referred, last Sabbath, to the Father's seeking 
to be worshipped in spirit and in truth, at the differ- 
ent epochs in human history, and in the future 
prospects of man for time and eternity. In view 
of this earnest seeking, from the first moment of the 
finished creation, to the final shutting of the doors 
of the eternal temple, I left you with this one word 
of application : Can there be young man or maiden, 
old man or child, who will basely refuse the privi- 
lege and duty of worshipping the Father in spirit 
and in truth ? Can there be young man or maiden, 
old man or child, who will not welcome public 



100 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

worship as the method of piety — as the way of 
approach to God — as the mould for the heart and 
character? who will not enter the house of prayer 
for all people, and worship the Father in spirit and 
in truth 1 Dare you refuse ? 

And how is it that we now meet ? Is it not with 
the memorials of Him, who rent the vail, and opened 
the holy place and the mercy-seat ; and who. having 
offered up himself once for all, abideth a Priest 
continually ; who hath ascended on high, and brought 
in an everlasting righteousness ; who hath led cap- 
tivity captive, and given gifts to men ; yea, for the 
rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell 
among men? O, if the Father has sought men to 
worship him in all ages, even until now, and will, 
until the gates of the eternal temple are closed ; if, 
every Sabbath, he especially calls us to worship in 
his holy temple ; how peculiarly, how tenderly, and 
with what authority, on a sacramental Sabbath ! 
It is to-day, as if the scenes were again acted 
before you, of the Saviour's death, and resurrection, 
and ascension, that he might give gifts to rebellious 
man — that he might bring all nations into the house 
of prayer. Say — in remembrance of that last groan 
— of that giving up the ghost — of that rent vail — of 
that resurrection from the dead — of that ascension to 
heaven, leading captivity captive — and of those gifts 
poured forth at Pentecost, and flowing until now — 
can there be young man or maiden, old man or 
child, who will refuse to worship the Father in 
spirit and in truth, in the house of prayer which 
Jesus himself has opened for all people ? 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 101 

There is peculiar interest in the subject, as it 
now opens upon us, in connection with the Lord's 
Supper, and particularly at that stage of our pro- 
gress at which we are now arrived, viz., to consider 
the instructions of the sanctuary ', the ascension gifts 
of our Saviour, of apostles, and prophets, and evan- 
gelists, and pastors, and teachers, for the perfecting 
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the 
edifying of the body of Christ ; till we all come, in 
the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the 
Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure 
of the stature of the fulness of Christ ; until we are 
prepared to worship in the eternal temple, and go no 
more out for ever. 

Undoubtedly, public instruction should be partly 
in the very words of Scripture. God's voice should 
be heard in the sanctuary ; his oracle should speak, 
whoever else is silent. The Bible is always sound, 
true, intelligible, apt, and it communicates in due 
proportions the various lessons of divine wisdom. 
The Bible, indeed, is in all our hands ; but this does 
not render the public hearing unimportant. The 
Scriptures have a peculiar interest in the house of God, 
and from the lips of his appointed officer, and amidst 
the sympathies of the pastor and his flock. Let us 
not regard the sermon as the chief matter in the 
instructions of the sanctuary, falling thus into the 
error which Protestants discarded three hundred 
years ago, that the Bible cannot be received by the 
people, without the interpretation of the priest. 
The Scriptures are to be read as the leading article 
of instruction, and as the guide and the standard of 
9* 



102 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

the teacher and the taught. Be sure that you take 
pains to be present and attentive at the public read- 
ing of God's word. Attentive hearers will find that 
most familiar of all books ever new and interesting, 
as read from the sacred desk. Better miss the 
sermon than the chapter. Better miss man's inter- 
pretation than God's communication. Thus will 
you be prepared to return from the sermon to search 
the Scriptures whether these things are so. 

In thus recommending the public reading of the 
Scriptures, I remember the instances on record of 
the ancient custom and of its blessed effects. That 
remarkable book, Deuteronomy, is but a repetition 
of previous revelations, and it proved a blessing to 
a whole people and to two generations: — to all 
generations ; for the effects of that second law-giving 
will never fail from among men. The reading of 
Shaphan, before king Josiah, of the long-neglected 
book of the Lord, and the reading it again in the 
house of the Lord, before the king and all the house 
of Judab, and all the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and 
the priests, and the prophets, and all the people, 
both small and great, was the means of that remark- 
able, though partial reformation, which stayed for a 
season God's anger against Judah and Jerusalem. 
And at the return of the captives, it was the public 
reading of the Scriptures — the small portions then 
extant — which instructed the returning people, and 
united them in solemn and steadfast covenant to 
serve the Lord God of their fathers: — "AH the 
people gathered themselves together as one man. 
into the street that was before the water-gate: and 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 103 

they spake unto Ezra, the scribe, to bring the book 
of the law of Moses, which the Lord commanded 
Moses. And Ezra, the priest, brought the law be- 
fore the congregation both of men and women — and 
the ears of all the people were attentive unto the 
book of the law." At the succeeding Feast of 
Tabernacles, with the appointed services, "day by 
day, from the first day to the last day, Ezra read in 
the book of the law of the Lord their God, one 
fourth part of the day, and another fourth part they 
confessed and worshipped the Lord their God;" 
closing with that form of repentance, and faith, and 
love, and holy resolution, recorded Nehemiah 9, 
and with the memorable obligation, "entering into 
a curse and into an oath to walk in God's law, 
which was given by Moses, the servant of God, and 
to observe and do all the commandments of the 
Lord their God, and his judgments and statutes." 

But oral instruction is by divine appointment su- 
peradded to the reading of the Scriptures, which it 
has no right to supersede. The Scriptures furnish 
the example as well as the directory for this proper 
" work of the ministry," this peculiar duty of pastors 
and teachers. The book of Deuteronomy was itself 
an oral comment and enforcement of the law, which 
it repeated. Such, also, were many discourses of 
kings, priests, and prophets, recorded or referred to ; 
and such especially was the reading of Ezra, dis- 
tinctly exemplifying the public preaching which has 
prevailed for ages. "And Ezra, the scribe, stood 
upon a pulpit of wood, and Ezra opened the book in 
the sight of all the people (for he was above all the 



104 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

people) : also Joshua, and Bani, and others caused 
the people to understand the law : so they read in 
the book of the law distinctly, and gave the sense, 
and caused the people to understand the reading." 
Our Lord sanctions the practice by his own example, 
and commits it to his apostles and their successors 
in all ages, when he says, " Go ye, teach all nations, 
and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of 
the world." This is the commission and the co- 
working acknowledged in the text: "When he 
ascended on high, he gave some, apostles ; and some, 
prophets; and some, pastors and teachers; for the 
perfecting of the saints, for the work of the ministry, 
for the edification of the body of Christ." This is 
what is required in succession by the apostle's 
charge to Timothy: "The things which thou hast 
heard of me before many witnesses, the same com- 
mit thou to faithful men, who shall be able to teach 
others also." 

True, inspiration has ceased; and if thus the 
office has ceased to have an absolute claim upon the 
obedience of men, it nevertheless is to be regarded 
as a divinely appointed office, "made for man," and 
adapted in all ages to promote his religious advan- 
tage. The uninspired officers of the Lord's house 
bring blessings to the people, ever, in proportion to 
their fidelity and skill, and never utterly failing. 

In the very worst case, the office of a public 
teacher has some security for right instruction. " It 
is easier to teach twenty what to do, than to be one 
of the twenty to follow your own teaching." The 
pulpit, under its greatest perversions, can never be 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 105 

the mere herald of error — the mere counsellor of sin 
and vice. Less secure from perversion than wor- 
ship, it has impulses which no conceivable force can 
utterly restrain. The deep current of the law within, 
urged and moved by sudden surprisals, will force 
out truth from the very lips of error ; will pour forth 
sound doctrine from the very throne of heresy. At 
the temple, around Moses's seat, there were found, in 
the most corrupt age, those who waited for the 
Consolation of Israel; doing according to the true 
words, and not according to the base deeds of those 
who taught them. The worst cases, of every age of 
the church, show that there are some securities in 
the condition of the office. No age has utterly failed 
in the communication of truth and duty from the 
temple. 

But in order to a just view of the advantage 
afforded by the office, we must regard it not in this 
lowest condition, nor yet in any condition short of its 
own proper character. We must regard it as it is in 
those who are true to the nature and design of the 
sacred office — of which the worst ages we may hope 
have furnished some, and the best a multitude of 
examples. O yes; there is sincerity and devoted- 
ness — there is a taking heed to their doctrine — 
there is an earnest and steadfast seeking for the 
Spirit — there is such diligence in meditation and 
prayer, that their profiting appears to all. There 
are men of God, thoroughly furnished unto all good 
works. Such men — honest, sincere, true-hearted, 
Waiting upon the promised teaching of the Spirit — 
ever searching for truth in its deep fountains, ever 



106 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

learning from the discipline of Heaven, and ever 
adapting their lessons to the persons and times of 
their ministry; — themselves striving to be examples 
of the counsels they give — how fitted for the work 
of the ministry, for the perfecting of the saints, 
for the edifying of the body of Christ ! How fit- 
ted is the true minister to save himself and those 
that hear him ! 

And this commendation is not cancelled by the 
necessary acknowledgment of remaining imperfec- 
tion ; nay, the commendation is exalted in view of 
weaknesses and errors, if indeed those weaknesses 
are strengthened, and those errors are corrected, by 
his own seeking and receiving the grace which the 
minister commends to others. He best magnifies 
his office who humbly learns the lessons which he 
teaches ; who faithfully receives grace in aid of im- 
perfection ; and who pleads the experience of a weak 
and sinful, but yet a sustained and guided, man. 
The lessons of an imperfect ministry are from man 
to man ; learned amidst the chances and changes of 
humanity, amidst the temptations and sins of erring 
humanity ; and yet amidst the answers, and reliefs, 
and aids which divine grace has furnished. Such 
lessons cannot be uttered without finding their coun- 
terpart in every assembly ; without adapting them- 
selves to each several mind. So much the more as 
the Christian minister shall rejoice in his own privi- 
lege of finding "grace to help in time of need," so 
much the more will his communications meet the 
wants of those who wait on his ministry. From 
the treasures garnered in his own bosom — from his 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 107 

own experience, as he has seen, and felt, and 
handled of the word of life amidst his own trials, 
the Christian minister brings forth to all the rich 
treasures of God's word. How apt will be his com- 
munications ! how precious to the hearers ! some- 
times, of design, meeting the common occasions of 
mankind ; but oftener finding their way from the 
secret experience of his own tried heart, to the tried 
hearts of others ; meeting the joy or the sorrow with 
which no stranger can intermeddle. " As in water 
face answereth to face, so doth the heart of man to 
man." Thus has the compassionate Saviour pro- 
vided for us. Such are the pastors and teachers 
appointed to lead the people to the mercy-seat, to 
the ark of the covenant, under the wings of the 
cherubims; every one knowing the plague of his 
own heart, that he may lead others, in their need, 
and sorrow, and sin, unto Jesus, the Mediator of 
the new covenant. u I believed, therefore have I 
spoken." 

In order to the due administration of these "gifts 
unto men," the instructions of the sanctuary must 
be given freely, without restraint and limitation, 

WIDE AS THE NEEDINESS AND SINFULNESS OF MAN. I 

have already claimed, in behalf of public prayer and 
praise, that it be in the name of all the people ; thus 
proffering to all, and requiring of all, the true method 
of piety, the perfect way of approach to God, the 
exact mould of the heart and character. In like 
manner, must the instructions of the sanctuary be 
addressed to all the people. The work of the min- 
istry is for man, and cannot be fulfilled except by 



108 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

the widest and most universal commands and offers ; 
commands not merely to those who are found ready 
to obey them ; offers not merely to those who are 
found ready to welcome them; but by commands 
and offers without respect of persons, wide as the 
neediness and sinfulness of man. The instructions 
of the house of prayer which Jesus has opened for 
all people, must declare the universal obligations of 
man — the universal privilege and opportunity of 
man ; must require " all men every where to repent/' 
to believe, to obey, to receive the Holy Ghost. 

I do not think it necessary to do more than state 
here a principle which governs my own ministry, 
and which seems to me indispensable to any true 
ministry of the word. If any need to examine the 
Scriptures for a principle which lies in every page, 
let them read those specimens — Isaiah 55, John 6 
and 7, Acts 2 and 17, and 1 Tim. 1 — and they will see 
that the gospel is to be proclaimed with the utmost 
freeness and fulness, with no other restraint and 
limitation than the neediness and sinfulness of man. 
Such a gospel has the Redeemer entrusted to men ; 
who, from their own experience, may call the thirsty 
to the full fountains of salvation, to the wells from 
which they have drawn with joy — the guilty, to the 
mercy and long-suffering which they have tasted for 
themselves — the helpless, to the strength with which 
they have been strengthened out of Zion. Even so 
are the ministry furnished for their work. 

Take the lowest case conceivable — that of the 
hearer — it may be feared the numerous hearers — 
from whom the whole communication falls irame- 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 109 

diately back, rejected and refused; do they stand 
as living proofs of the powerlessness of the Christian 
ministry? Do they prove the gift of the Redeemer, 
when he ascended, to be a vain and useless gift ? 
Does their unbelief prove the gift of the Redeemer a 
very vanity ? By no means. The most unprofited 
hearer carries, at least in his own bosom — ay, and 
again and again reveals to others, the testimony to 
the power to which he has refused to yield himself, 
and which might have wrought him, and should 
have wrought him, into the infant and growing 
image of his Saviour. We must suppose the in- 
structions of the sanctuary, the demands and offers 
of the gospel, to be brought forth from the rich 
treasury of an experienced and well-instructed 
scribe ; and to be urged with sincerity and affection 
upon every man's welcome; and that it meets the 
neediness and sinfulness of every man. O, think 
not that truth, more precious than gold, is ever thus 
ministered from heaven, by a minister heaven- 
taught, amidst the sins and sufferings of earth, 
without winning its testimony from needy and sin- 
ful men, passing though it may, ever so rapidly, to 
neglect, forgetfulness, and rejection. The gospel, in 
its claims upon the conscience and the heart of man ; 
in its free and full offer of forgiveness and help to 
needy and sinful man, proclaimed by a fellow-man 
who has tasted of its fountain of living waters, can- 
not be uttered in any assembly of needy and sinful 
men, without leaving in the bosoms of those who 
reject it, a witness of its power. Ah, no ! the very 
effort to reject it — the very resistance which makes 
10 



110 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

it rebound from the bosom — the worldliness, and 
pride, and passion, and self-will, which remain after 
it has rebounded, do but prove the strength and 
power of the living word — of the gospel, "with the 
Holy Ghost sent down from heaven." Nay, the 
hardened neck — when among the hearers of God's 
word that curse shall come — will be an eternal 
witness to the frequent reprovings, in God's holy 
sanctuary, by means of the ministers of the word. 

But let us take another case. I refer to that more 
common, I trust, in every assembly where the truth 
is spoken with fair simplicity and energy, by a 
minister whose character commends itself to the 
confidence and affection of the community — to the 
temporary assent and consent — to the commendation 
to every man's conscience in the sight of God. O, 
the preached word is not in vain, as to its imme- 
diate influence, however it may be proved ineffectual 
in its final and abiding results. In such a case, and 
I think the prevailing one, the word, the good seed, 
fails not to fall upon the heart, i. e., to awaken the 
conscience, and prompt the desire and resolution of 
the assembly ; to move, and influence, and win the 
mass of the people, for the moment, and until the 
access of Satan, or the hour of trial, or the time of 
self-cultivation. And if it be so — as I think it is — 
if such be the power of truth ministered from heaven 
by a heaven-taught minister; if thus the Saviour 
works, with his appointed servants, upon the hearts 
and consciences of men, up to the point where Satan 
exerts his sudden surprisals — where temptation 
makes its vigorous attacks, or where one's own 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. Ill 

diligence must work with the power that worketh 
in us ; — O, if thus the preached word prompts and 
moves the assembly, up to the very point of persua- 
sion, and decision, and obedience — up to the very 
point of a true seeking the Lord, and a true forsak- 
ing of the evil way and thoughts — what a witness 
does every assembly bear to the power of the 
preached gospel ! What an open door of the king- 
dom of heaven is the Christian sanctuary ! What 
an opportunity is afforded by the teachings of the 
Christian ministry ! And how is that opportunity 
manifest to ministering angels, to the prompting and 
striving Spirit, and to each hearer's own inward 
mind, when again and again, a thousand times, the 
immediate repentance, the present faith, the actual 
and instant obedience, is ready to become the tem- 
per and character of the listening and convinced 
assembly ! Alas, the contrast which sometimes oc- 
curs, in the space of half an hour, in the sight of 
those ministering angels, and that prompting and 
striving Spirit, and of each hearer's own witnessing 
and reproving soul ! What a contrast in the tone of 
the public mind ! — then, at heaven's gate, as if ready 
and hastening to enter; now, straying far away, 
with scarce a conscience or a heart ! Hearers, 
beware how you trifle with the convinced, and 
subdued, and melting moods, which sometimes 
come over you, under the ministrations of God's 
word ! It is a power more than is in human lan- 
guage, an influence above the mere speech of man, 
that has gained the momentary mastery over you. 
" I never heard such a sermon before," is not always 



112 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

the language of a vain applause; but often, if it 
were interpreted, but saying, " I never felt so moved 
and urged before;" is but the acknowledgment of 
impulses a thousand times received, and a thousand 
times forgotten ! Beware how you resist those im- 
pulses : hearken to the preached word : yield to 
its impressions. Then shall your peace be like a 
river, and your righteousness like the waves of the 
sea. 

But we may pass to another case : I mean, the 
actual welcome and acceptance of the influence to 
which I have been now urging. The aroused feel- 
ing of a listening, convinced, and almost persuaded 
assembly, does not ahvays, perhaps never, utterly 
vanish away. Among those eager eyes which fasten 
on the Christian teacher, as if they were receiving 
the very light of life, he cannot tell who will retain 
and obey the impressions he feels sure they are 
receiving; who will welcome the Spirit, who, he is 
sure, is now aiding his urgency ; who will yield to 
the power which is now brooding over them, to 
transform them into the children of God. Bat 
though he cannot know — though he may wait 
for years for that cheering knowledge — though he 
may never know, until he shall meet the perfected 
saint in glory— there is often in that listening assem- 
bly, the sincere desire, the silent but deep prayer, 
yes, and the bearing away the seed which fell upon 
the heart, watched, and guarded, and treasured, and 
matured, that it may bring forth fruit — there is the 
prayerful homeward walk, and the prayerful medi- 
tation on the word, and the prayerful watering and 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 113 

cherishing the springing seed and the growing blade, 
amidst the cares of the week-time — yes, and there 
is the new coming, each new Sabbath ; the taking 
those words of return which God has appointed in 
the house of prayer, and the hearing the renewed 
offers and commands of the gospel, and the flow of 
heart with the moving influences of God's word and 
Spirit in his holy temple : until the character is 
formed, the principles are settled, and the saint 
grows on from strength to strength, until he attains 
to the measure of the stature of the fulness of 
Christ. 

And here it is, in the influence upon those who 
welcome these privileges, that we must look for the 
true exhibition of the advantages of the instructions 
of the Christian sanctuary. How can they be man- 
ifested in those who reject them? In those who 
receive them — in those who draw water out of the 
wells of salvation — we must look for their power ; 
and this is especially the intimation of the text. 

And here what may not be expected? If the 
Christian ministry must, like that of the Lord him- 
self, spend its strength for nought, and in vain, on 
the broad field of the world, can it be otherwise 
than effectual upon the well-tilled and well-watered 
plants of the Christian church 1 O what an advan- 
tage is here ! What an advantage for the perfecting 
of the saints — for the carrying forward the good 
work in the hearts which have welcomed and 
cherished its beginning ! How earnestly may we 
suppose the officer will be aided by the prayers of 
those whom he has been appointed to serve, and 
10* 



114 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

how welcomed his efforts in their behalf, even 
though sometimes severe, still as an excellent oil 
upon the heads of a healed and healthy church ! 

Nor let us think that a true ministry can be found 
laboring in vain for a true church : let us not think 
that it can be so — that an honest, and earnest, and 
prayerful ministry can fail of richly aiding the dis- 
ciples — that it can fail of its intention and design, 
of perfecting the saints, of edifying the body of 
Christ, until all come " to the measure of the stature 
of the fulness of Christ." O, no ! These objects 
and aims of the Christian ministry — these gifts of 
the ascended Redeemer — are not in vain. Amidst 
the imperfections which require them, and which 
may exist even in sincere minds, there is a thirst, 
not only for the worship, but for the instructions of 
God's house ; there is a longing desire for the sincere 
milk of the word, that strength may be gained to 
lay aside all malice, and all guile, and all evil 
speaking, and for growth thereby. There is an 
eager listening, an earnest hearing of the counsels 
of pastoral affection ; as if the disciples were indeed 
ministered to from heaven, by the lips of a heaven- 
taught minister ; and though those counsels be felt 
as a cutting reproof (often without the intention of 
him who utters them), still, how are they received 
as the wounds of a friend — the aids of recovery from 
sin to holiness ! Yes, and there is growth, from 
grace to grace, and from glory to glory, in those 
who thus welcome the work of the ministry ; there 
is improvement in temper and character, in every 
grace and virtue ; there are the fruits of the Spirit, 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 115 

love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, meek- 
ness, patience, truth, never ceasing until the believer, 
growing thus into the character of his Lord, passes 
from the earthly to the heavenly temple. O, be this 
the testimony which we afford to the glory of God's 
house — that we welcome its instructions, and that 
we grow to the measure of the stature of the fulness 
of Christ ! Be this my joy and crown, in an increas- 
ing multitude around me ! 

Think not that I speak on this subject, merely as 
a minister. I have no recollections of religious 
advantage more precious than of the instructions of 
the sanctuary. I trust that I have not found my 
own official efforts for others in vain to myself. 
u He that watereth, shall be watered also himself." 
But amidst the personal reproofs and aids which I 
have experienced, as the reaction of my own minis- 
trations, I have never forgotten, I can never forget, 
the ministrations to my youth, and the occasional 
ministrations of my co-officials, to my more ad- 
vanced life. In every land, in all the changes of 
my condition, I have rejoiced in the rich treasures 
of God's house, conveyed through his appointed and 
owned ministers. I have not learned to disparage 
the lessons beside the common path of life ; but I 
have learned to value yet more and more the power 
and the grace which crown God's holy temple. 

I close this discourse with four advices, such as 
closed my discourses on the proper worship of the 
Christian sanctuary. 

1. Come to the instructions of the sanctuary, and 
do all that in you lies to bring others with you. 



116 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

If God has instituted an office for religious coun- 
sel, and set it among you, and if you have called 
and received his ambassador as your own special 
officer ; if you expect from him faithful and earnest 
efforts in preparing himself for your service ; and if 
you have good hope of him, that as a heaven- 
directed minister, he will give you heavenly coun- 
sels ; then is it your duty and privilege to come to 
the appointed place, and at the appointed time, with 
all fidelity and constancy, as becomes the regularity 
and perpetuity of the divine arrangement in your 
behalf. 

Again ; bring others with you — of course, those of 
whom you have the special charge — the members 
of your own family. But I mean more than this. 
Bring, as did Cornelius to the instructions of Peter, 
as far as is possible, your " kinsmen and near 
friends." This duty of those who attend upon the 
instructions of the Lord's house, is not regarded as 
it should be. The office of a Christian teacher must 
have its course among the people much in proportion 
to the numbers who wait on his ministry. Of course, 
no effort can be more important than the kind, and 
earnest, and constant pains to bring increasing 
numbers to this holy service. We may have, in 
this and other places in town, some seven hundred 
people, who, on a pleasant Sabbath like this, come 
to the instructions of the Lord's house, I trust with 
some benefit for time and eternity. But what are 
seven hundred among a population of two thousand 1 
What if you could double the attendance by your 
kind entreaties, by your neighborly kindness 1 Is it 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 117 

not your duty to do the work of Cornelius, in hope 
of a blessing above all price — even the presence and 
the power of the Holy Ghost, upon yourselves who 
bring, and upon your kinsmen and near friends who 
are brought by you to hear God's message in his 
temple ? 

I am aware of the old difficulty, which, alas ! I 
fear may be yet older. In an unfortunate hour, you 
built too small a house, and, by the omission of 
those ancient and honorable galleries, missed all fair 
provision of free seats; and thus have excluded, 
God knows how many tens, or hundreds, who 
might otherwise have been regular church attend- 
ants. So it is ; and so I fear it is likely to continue. 
And what then ? The only thing which remains is 
to do the next best thing, and that is, to call 
the people into the house, such as it is. That the 
house is too small, and that it is fairly and honora- 
bly full, is no reason why you should not call upon 
the people, until every seat and every aisle is filled. 
Let me say now, as I have often said — crowd and 
overcrowd these courts with your kinsmen and near 
friends, with your neighbors— and call every man 
your neighbor. Call in the people, until necessity 
shall be laid upon you to provide more room for a 
population eager for public worship and instruction ; 
until our tiny gallery shall expand itself into dimen- 
sions more suited to our changing population, and 
our floor be enlarged for those who are to hold fast 
and transmit our heritage to our heirs. I should ill 
perform my own duty, as a Christian teacher, if I 
did not, from time to time, require this at your 



118 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

hands. If you honor me. as in any degree worthy 
of my office, then give me fair scope- — open for me a 
door of utterance to the other hundreds who are 
outcast from among us. It cannot he right that 
either I or you he satisfied with a provision for 
scarcely more than one half of our population ; with 
the absence of one half of our population from the 
worship and instructions of the sanctuary. First, 
then, let us do what we first can — crowd and over- 
crowd our actual accommodations — and then, as fast 
as we can, extend and enlarge them, until we meet 
the wants of the people ; saying now, and saying at 
every stage, in the words which prophecy puts into 
our mouths — "Come ye, and let us go up to the 
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of 
Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we 
will walk in his paths.' ' 

2. Meet the instructions of the sanctuary with 
due attention: i. e., with such attention as the office 
of instruction requires. In order to this, the hearer 
must discipline his mind beforehand, and afterwards; 
occupying himself at the intervals as a learner. I 
know no one thing more favorable to an attentive 
hearing, than to write, for one's own advantage, a 
brief account of the sermon. If to this be added the 
diligent searching of the Scriptures, as to the matters 
taught, and other connected reading, and such re- 
flection as may make one to understand and apply 
it, we may expect the proper preparation for atten- 
tive hearing. In order to a due attention in hearing, 
the people must be a reading and reflecting — a 
studious people. 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 119 

There is a complaint against an unprofitable 
ministry, which might with as great, and often 
greater reason be retorted on an unprofited people : 
"The minister does not study!" I know no apol- 
ogy for an unstudious ministry — for neglecting the 
apostle's charge: "Give attention to reading... 
Meditate upon these things. Give thyself wholly to 
them, that thy profiting may appear to all." Let 
the accusation lie against every minister who neg- 
lects his official duty, as a diligent, and persevering, 
and profiting student; and let each one ask, how 
can I answer for neglect to God or man? But let 
the charge be retorted, and lie where it may : u The 
people do not study!" Alas, hearers, the people do 
not study I Save yourselves from this charge who 
may, yet may we say, the people do not study I 
So that when the ministry has studied, has medi- 
tated, has profited, has brought forth its treasures 
new and old, the hearer, himself unstudious, is 
utterly unprepared to receive the lesson ; his wan- 
dering mind — his unfurnished mind — his unreflecting 
mind — cannot be profited by a profitable ministry. 
" The pulpit should study ! "• — Yes ; and if the pews 
will receive the communications of a studious pulpit, 
the pews must study. l ' The pulpit should bring 
forth its treasures, from all nature and history — from 
all the works of God and ways of men, even like 
the divine word itself!" — Yes: but the pews must 
study nature and history, the works of God and 
ways of men, and must look up to the pulpit with 
an ardent desire to receive the rich treasures of 
God's word. "The pulpit should prepare before- 



120 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

hand for its high communications !" — Yes; and the 
pews should prepare beforehand for their high 
receivings, lest the pulpit's study be made vain ! 
"The pulpit should think!" — Yes; and the pews 
should think ! " The pulpit should preach well ! " 
Yes ; but the pews must hear well. We refuse not 
the charge — the minister must study — but we retort 
it: the 'people must study. Then, indeed, shall our 
profiting appear to all. 

3. Seek and expect a blessing with the instruc- 
tions of the sanctuary. 

What a hindrance is opposed to the work of the 
ministry, when, though its instructions be pure, and 
true, and full, they are not looked upon as the 
great means of teaching the people the ways of the 
Lord ; especially if lesser means are resorted unto 
as the fountain-heads and water-courses of blessing ! 
No wonder, at least, that the instructions of the 
Lord's house fail of success, when the people look 
every where else but there, for the knowledge of 
his ways ! and no wonder, too, if their self-elected 
resorts fail of making them walk in the ways of the 
Lord ! Where the expectation of the people is di- 
verted from the fountain-head of instruction — from 
the deep river of divine knowledge — to the mere 
water-pots of man, no wonder at barrenness and 
decay — at fields naked and sear, watered so sparsely 
by the poor handy- works of man ! If the word of 
the Lord would have free course and be glorified, it 
must flow from the fountain-head, and fill the deep 
water-courses which God has provided; and must 
flow thence over the whole field which it is appointed 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 121 

to refresh. If you wish God to teach you and all 
the people of his ways, you must seek and expect 
his blessing on the instructions of the sanctuary. 

And this advice must regard, of course, imme- 
diately, the actual ministry set over you. Seek and 
expect a blessing on the instructions of your own 
sanctuary. This advice may apply to three differ- 
ent positions. 

1. Preparatory to those instructions, during the 
week, of a Sabbath morning, as you are coming to 
God's house, and as you wait in silence; seek and 
expect a blessing ; pray in secret, and hope for the 
answer to your prayers. Pray and hope that the 
teacher may be divinely taught, and that the lessons 
soon to proceed from his lips, may turn the people 
from the error of their ways. 

2. Be sure, also, that you join the social prayer, 
for a blessing on the word. A sincere and earnest 
ministry, longing for a blessing on the people, cannot 
fail to lead them, in heartfelt petitions, that the 
instructions which he gives may be immediately 
blessed. Coming from time to time, with a high 
and holy purpose, he must be strangely inconsistent 
if he does not lead you often in u words that burn." 
May it not be especially required that you join the 
officer of instruction in those prayers, which are to 
call down Heaven's blessing on the labors of man? 
In my own case they are imperfect, but not seldom 
as a "fire in my bones." Will you not join me in 
those prayers, which invoke a blessing on the word 
preached 1 

3. There is still a third position of seeking and 

11 



122 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

expectation — a third position for prayer for a 
blessing : I mean, during the preaching of the word 
— while it falls. Pray then, in silence, that it may 
prove a blessing on your own heart, and on all 
hearts. O, there are moments, when the word 
preached overspreads the assembly as if with power 
from on high ; when it fixes every eye and every 
thought ; when it touches every conscience and 
every heart; when the whole people are bound to 
the speaker's lips, as if they would receive from 
them the very oracles of God : when the word is 
aided by the Spirit: when with his word, God is 
co-working. There are often such seasons — little as 
the influence may be afterwards — there are such 
seasons often, under the ministry of the word, when 
God seems present with his word, and but waiting 
to be welcomed, by the silent, deep, believing prayer 
of the listening assembly. O meet such moments 
with your prayers ! May not even this be such 
a moment ? Crown it with your prayers, that you 
may be crowned with the largest measures of bless- 
ing from on high. 

Finalh T . Fulfil the instructions of the sanctu- 
ary. "Receive with meekness the ingrafted word, 
which is able to save your souls." 

Ask not your pastor and teacher to sink his 
instructions to the actual state of your minds: to 
such a form as the impenitent and unbelieving 
might comply with, remaining still in impenitence 
and unbelief. Do not ask him to limit his demands 
of all that God requires, or his offers of all that God 
gives, to the penitent, and believing, and obedient. 



THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 123 

Rather, when with the freeness and the fulness of 
the Scriptures, he requires the whole Christian char- 
acter of the whole assembly, be it at the time ever 
so unchristian — when he offers the whole grace of 
the gospel to the whole assembly, be it ever so rebel- 
lious — when he requires all to repent, all to believe, 
all to obey, all to receive the Holy Ghost — 

Then, when that right claim is made — not of one 
class, but of all classes — not of a few, but of many — 
not of saints only, but of saints and sinners — not of 
a part only, but of the whole, under the broad com- 
mission, " Go ye into all the world, and preach the 
gospel to every creature" 1 — then fulfil the instruc- 
tions of the sanctuary : " Receive with meekness the 
ingrafted word," and it shall prove "able to save 
your souls." 

This is what is wanting to crown the instructions 
of the Christian sanctuary — a people saying one to 
another, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain 
of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, and 
he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his 
paths : this fulfilling the instructions of the Lord's 
house, of which prophecy gives expectation, and 
which is at once required and assured in behalf of 
any and of every Christian assembly. This, and 
this only — this, too, that is at hand to-day — this is 
what is wanting to crown my ministry with success. 
Yes — imperfect as it is — I am so convinced, that 
my efforts to make it after the pattern of Scripture 
are not utterly in vain, that I dare to say, not only 
before you, but in the presence of my Redeemer, 
this, O this — the attempt, even, to fulfil its offers 



124 THE INSTRUCTIONS OF THE SANCTUARY. 

and demands — this is -what my ministry wants, to 
crown it with blessings now and for ever, and to 
win for me, in the bosoms of this whole church and 
people, the welcome and the thanks of a benefited 
charge. Is it presumption in me, after the instruc- 
tions of years — if imperfect, yet drawn diligently 
and prayerfully from the deep wells of truth — to 
say, that I feel sure of your love and your thank- 
fulness, if you will accept the offers and obey the 
commands, which I have endeavored, in the Sa- 
viour's name, to unfold and enforce? 

Come, then, and fulfil the demands of the Christian 
'ministry. Ask not that it demand less — object not 
that it demands so much — be thankful that it re- 
quires the whole duty of a Christian of every sinner 
among you ; that it offers the fidl privilege of a Chris- 
tian to every sinner among you — be thankful that it 
reaches down to every needy and sinful man, and 
try to fulfil — at least try to fulfil — that wide, that 
full, that glorious demand. Try to fulfil your whole 
duty, your whole privilege. Try to repent, accor- 
ding to a true repentance; to believe according to a 
true faith ; to receive the Saviour and the Spirit, 
and thus to become the sons and daughters of God. 
Do this, sinner, and you will be no longer an unre- 
newed sinner. Do this, professor, and you will be 
no mere professor. Do this, saint, and you will, 
Avith all other saints, " come in the unity of the faith 
and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a 
perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the 
fulness of Christ." 



SERMON VI. 



JANUARY 28, 1838. 



THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 



2 Corinthians 8 : 13. 

We, having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, 
I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and 
therefore speak. 

Since the last Lord's day, I liave been led to 
review, with deep interest, the appeal of June 4th, 
that "ye receive not the grace of God in vain." 
I trust it is still so fresh in your recollection, that 
you will be prepared to follow me, while I repeat it 
to-day, as the best method of enforcing the urgency 
of the first three Sabbaths in the year : " Take heed 
how ye hear." O that I could come to this repeti- 
tion, and you to this review, as becomes the relation 
of pastor and flock ! " 

The appeal, Receive not the grace of God in vain, 

is made by the apostle in the twofold character of a 

man to his fellow-men, and of an apostle of Christ 

to men ; from personal experience, and as the official 

11* 



126 THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 

organ of the grace of the Redeemer : "I believed, 
therefore have I spoken ; we also believe, and there- 
fore speak. — We then, as workers together with 
God, beseech you." With a deep conviction of his 
own sin and ruin, and of the reality and importance 
of the visitations of grace, and with an inward ex- 
perience of its power, the apostle appeals, as a 
prepared, as well as commissioned and aided, ambas- 
sador of Christ. Even so it pleased the wisdom of 
God, not merely to reveal his grace to man, but by 
man. Men like ourselves, convinced, persuaded, 
believing, have spoken unto us of the grace of God, 
as ambassadors for Christ ; and so it continues to be 
with all true and faithful ministers of the gospel : 
they appeal hi their office from their own experience. 
Three views of that experience may be noted. 

1. The appeal is made from a deep personal 
sense of man's sin and ruin, without the grace of 
God. 

How marked is this conviction in the writings of 
the apostle ! " This is a faithful saying, and worthy 
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the 
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.''' "O 
wretched man that I am ! who shall deliver me from 
the body of this death?" "I keep under my body, 
and bring it into subjection ; lest that by any means, 
when I have preached unto others, I myself should 
be a cast-away." c: For we must all appear before 
the judgment-seat of Christ, that every one may 
receive according to that he hath done, whether it 
be good or bad. Knowing therefore the terror of the 
Lord, we persuade men." 



THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 127 

If, then, we speak to you after the manner of the 
apostle, of the sin and ruin of man without grace, 
we are not to be regarded as mere lecturers upon 
truth; or even merely as officially announcing the 
truth. We urge the truth upon you, rather, chiefly 
from our personal convictions. Convicted of our own 
sin and misery, and of the eternal issues of death in 
sin, we speak of your sin and misery, and of the 
eternal issues of your death in sin ; and beseech you 
that ye receive not the grace of God in vain. 

What ! shall the Christian minister attempt to 
prove the sin and ruin of man, when he has felt it in 
his bosom, and can assert it, to men like himself, 
from his own deepest conviction 1 So true to man, so 
agreeing with his own inward conscience and expe- 
rience, and with all that men know of one another, 
is man's lost state without grace, that the appeal 
from conviction, is the true way to produce the 
conviction of our fellow-men. We meet not the 
doubting and the cavilling on the low grounds of 
debatable doctrine, but on the higher grounds of 
appeal to the reason, and conscience, and experience, 
and observation of man; from our own reason, and 
conscience, and experience, and observation. True, 
we can debate ; but we cannot allow that the matter 
is debatable. So deep, so thorough, so abiding, so 
necessary to our known humanity, is our conviction 
of our own misery and ruin, that we cannot allow 
them as debatable ; and of so deep and awful mo- 
ment are they, that we dare not. Hence, if any who 
now hear me, doubt the sin and ruin of man, if "he 
receive the grace of God in vain ;" or if any are 



128 THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 

neglectful and inconsiderate of what they acknow- 
ledge ; my appeal is from my own convictions : — 
Of no truths am I more deeply convinced ; none are 
more constantly with me, awaking my fears, and 
prompting my exertions. / am not more convinced 
that fire icill bum, so long as it rages among materi- 
als fitted for the fire, than I am that a sinner, without 
effectual grace, must perish everlastingly — that sin, 
when it is finished, bringeth forth death. With sin in 
my bosom, such as you have in yours, and the same 
reason and conscience acknowledging its guilt, and 
with the same experience and observation of its 
issues, as far as our experience and observation 
reach, I appeal to your very selves, and claim not so 
much the assent of your understanding, as the 
inward conviction of your whole mind — your own 
inward terror of the Lord — of answering, at the 
judgment-seat of Christ, for the things done in the 
body. 

2. The appeal is made under a deep conviction of 
the reality and importance of the visitations of grace 
to men. 

That sinful, ruined man may be forgiven — that 
he may be changed by the Spirit into the image of 
his Lord — that in that image he will be clothed with 
a house which is from heaven — and that mortality 
will be swallowed up of life, if life in Christ Jesus 
has been begun in our mortal body; — these truths 
were as certain, as settled, in the apostle's belief, as 
the existence of sun, earth, air — perceptible to 
his outward senses. He speaks of the spiritual 
world, on earth and in heaven, as one in it ; as one 



THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 129 

amidst its begun and growing glory ; as if his own 
face were glowing in it without a veil, such as cov- 
ered the face of Moses when he came down from 
the mount; and not less sure than that ancient 
prophet, when he had just been holding open con- 
verse with Jehovah. Thus convinced, the apostle 
made a "manifestation of the truth, commending 
himself to every man's conscience in the sight of 
God." Thus convinced, he could declare — " For 
God, who commanded the light to shine out of 
darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the 
face of Jesus Christ." Amidst all the conflicts of 
human opinion, amidst all temptations to error, he 
could say, with unwavering confidence, "Neverthe- 
less, the foundation of God standeth sure, having 
this seal, The Lord knoweth them that are his." 
Amidst all fatigue, and suffering, and perplexity, 
even when his dangers and sufferings fixed his 
whole soul upon the dying of the Lord Jesus, as the 
pattern of his own, he remained still steadfast in the 
truths of grace; firmly believing, and confidently 
asserting — "We, having the same spirit of faith, 
according as it is written, I believed, and therefore 
have I spoken ; we also believe, and therefore speak. 
Knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus, 
shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us 
with you." "For we know that if our earthly 
house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have 
a building of God, a house not made with hands, 
eternal in the heavens." 



130 THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 

And so confidently, from his own deep conviction, 
can every faithful minister assert the reality and 
importance of the visitations of grace to man. " We 
also believe, and therefore speak." We have read 
the record which God has given of the power and 
purposes of his grace; and in our esteem it is "no 
cunningly devised fable." " The sure word of 
prophecy" has shone in upon our minds, as a '"light 
that shineth in a dark place," and Ave feel as sure as 
the disciples, who saw the Redeemer's " glory in the 
holy mount." The visitations of grace are in our 
esteem as sufficient, as suitable to our need ; filling 
up the entire vacancy in our means of present and 
future well-being; changing sin into holiness, death 
into life, and misery into eternal glory. Like those 
to whom we speak, we are in the darkness of sin, 
and, in that darkness, have seen the day dawn, and 
the day-star arise, and the light of the morning 
grow, with the deepest assurance, that to those that 
fear the Lord, the Sun of righteousness will arise 
with healing in his wings. 

This, then, is the appeal that I would make to 
you, in behalf of the visitations of grace to man. I 
speak of those visitations, as one deeply convinced 
of them. I speak of truths suited at once to the sin 
and ruin of man, and to the dignity of man as an 
immortal being; truths, which give interest to the 
whole path of life; which make life's pilgrimage 
worth passing through, life's trials worth enduring, 
life's sharpest sufferings worthy to be regarded as 
light afflictions; because they crown this life, this 
short moment, with an eternal weight of glory. 



THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 131 

There lingers not a doubt in my own mind, as to 
the certainty of the truths of grace, or of their infi- 
nite value to man — of their infinite value to myself ; 
such, that all the blessings of life are not to be com- 
pared to the treasure which they bring, and that no 
sufferings are to be shunned at the hazard of its loss. 
I do not more plainly see the necessity and value of 
food, and raiment, and home, and health, and friend- 
ship, for the present life, than I do the necessity and 
value of the visitations of grace, for the benefit of 
my whole being. If reason, and conscience, and 
the pressure of necessity, claim of me to seek after 
food, and raiment, and home, and health, and friend- 
ship, so do they with all possible power, that I should 
seek the grace of God, as the rich store of all I need 
for time and eternity. It is impossible for me to 
express my conviction of the certainty and value of 
the visitations of grace, in terms too strong; and not 
on the low grounds of argument, as if they admitted 
debate, but with the deepest conviction which a man 
can feel, would I appeal to me?i, like myself; to men 
like myself, sinful and helpless, needing and even 
craving redemption from a felt curse — cleansing 
from experienced sin — a new life, springing from a 
stubborn death — and a hope of glory, which maketh 
not ashamed, breaking in upon the darkness and 
disappointments of this world. With this appeal, I 
claim the conviction of your whole mind, and de- 
mand that ye receive the grace of God with the 
ascription, "Thanks be unto God for his unspeak- 
able gift." 



132 THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 

3. The appeal of a faithful ministry is made from 
a 'personal experience of the sustaining, aiding, guid- 
ing, and transforming power of the grace of God. 

The several qualities which I have here named, 
are not to be spoken of separately; for the grace of 
God, amidst the manifold infirmities, and sufferings, 
and enjoyments, and temptations, and sinfulness of 
this present life, is at once a sustaining, aiding, 
guiding, and transforming power. 

There is an advantage to the appeal in the very 
infirmities of the ambassadors of Christ; in their 
weakness, needing to be sustained; in their igno- 
rance, needing to be guided; and in their very 
sinfulness, if indeed they receive, as well as need, 
the transforming power of grace. What strength 
and boldness of appeal the apostle puts forth, from 
the very experience amidst his infirmities : " But we 
have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excel- 
lency of the power may be of God, and not of us !'*' 
Needing every thing, which weakness, ignorance, 
and sin can need, and yet receiving every thing from 
the grace of God! "Troubled on every side, yet 
not distressed ; perplexed, but not in despair ; perse- 
cuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not de- 
stroyed ; always bearing about in the body the dying 
of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might 
be made manifest in our mortal body." Nay, how 
does he repeat his experience of weakness sustained, 
ignorance guided, and character transformed, amidst 
the struggles of life, as the highest commendation of 
his urgency, that they " receive not the grace of God 



THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 133 

in vain ! — " Giving no offence in any thing, that the 
ministry be not blamed ; bnt in all things approving 
ourselves as the ministers of God, in much patience, 
in afflictions, in necessities, in distresses, in stripes, 
in imprisonments, in tumults, in labors, in watch- 
ings, in fastings; by pureness, by knowledge, by 
long-suffering, by kindness, by the Holy Ghost, by 
love unfeigned ; by the word of truth, by the power 
of God, by the armor of righteousness on the right 
hand and on the left, by honor and dishonor, by evil 
report and good report; as deceivers, and yet true; 
as unknown, and yet well known; as dying, and 
behold we live; as chastened, and not killed; as 
sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making 
many rich; as having nothing, and yet possessing 
all things.'' As sure, as that food nourished and 
strengthened him, that air quickened and sustained 
him, that raiment warmed and comforted him, so 
sure was the apostle that he had not received in vain 
the grace of God, amidst his infirmities and sins. 
Suffering had not driven him back from following 
the Master whom he found on the road to Damascus ; 
temptation had not lured him from the path; the 
body, with its appetites, had been brought into sub- 
jection ; and the soul had felt, in all its passions, the 
subduing and transforming power of grace, until he 
could say, with all assurance, "God, who com- 
manded the light to shine out of darkness, hath 
shined into our hearts, to give the light of the 
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ. But we have this treasure in earthen ves- 
12 



134 THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 

sels, that the excellency of the power may be of 
God, and not of us." 

Yes ; and in his proportion, may every faithful 
minister appeal from his personal experience of the 
sustaining, aiding, guiding, and transforming power 
of the grace of God. He is encompassed with all 
the infirmities, and liable to all the sinfulness of his 
fellow-men ; and in the necessities common to all, if 
he be faithful but in the lowest degree, he has 
learned to come to the throne of grace, and has 
found "grace to help in time of need;" — has been 
sustained, aided, guided, and transformed. Life has 
been his school of discipline; and he can "comfort 
others with the comfort wherewith he himself has 
been comforted of God." 

There is nothing like life for bringing man to the 
throne of grace: nothing like the occasions of this 
life of discipline ; and it must be chiefly from our 
own lives, from our own growing experience, that I 
or others can best commend the grace of God to our 
fellow-men. Happy, if when we appeal from our 
own experience, our visible lives do not contradict 
us! Happy, if amidst our infirmities and sinful- 
ness, we show, in the least degree, the prevailing 
and pervading influence of grace in our daily con- 
duct; if even a feeble "light so shine before men, 
that seeing our good works, they may glorify our 
Father which is in. heaven." 

What then shall I say? What can I say, if it be 
not, that having attempted to receive the grace of 
God effectually, even from early youth, I can and 
do bear heartfelt witness to its sustaining, aiding, 



THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 135 

guiding, and transforming power? If I am in ear- 
nest with you, it is that you should make completely 
the experiment, which I have made, feebly but sin- 
cerely, I trust not " in vain." Yes, there is a gra- 
cious God, who meets with his favor those who 
seek him in the name of the Mediator; in their 
sorrow, and in their joy ; in their fear, and in their 
hope ; in their pain, and in their ease ; in the temp- 
tations that are common to man. There is a gracious 
God, who, with every temptation, makes a way for 
their escape, that they may be able to bear it ; who 
leads them in the way that they should go, and 
enables them, in their weakness and sinfulness, to 
do his will ; and who transforms them, by however 
slow degrees, into his own perfect image. I have 
seen varieties of life, on the sea, and on the land, 
in my own country, and among strangers — and 
what else can I say, but that every path of life has 
been signalized, and is remembered, by a sense of 
God's gracious presence; by attempts to draw nigh 
to the throne of grace ; and by seeming answers 
according to my need, often above all human hope ; 
and those answers failing in their special instances, 
by cheerful acquiescence in affliction, and by earnest 
longings for transformation of character — yes, and 
by that steadfast peace, which can never prevail 
without subdued passions and a humbled mind. 
The scenes of life arise before me while I speak, as 
scenes with God ; and with confidence in Him, from 
my own imperfect experience, and with thanks- 
giving, I commend to this whole assembly the grace 
of God, and beseech them that they receive it not in 
vain. 



136 THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 

And now, in closing this article of an old dis- 
course, I wish to appeal to three different stages of 
the path of life : and first, to the young, from the 
experience of my oicn youth. If I have any title to 
commend God's grace from experience, it is es- 
pecially to the young, from the experience of my 
own youth. If I can speak of desire, and anxiety, 
and a sense of sin ripening into repentance and faith ; 
of the convincing Spirit, becoming the received and 
welcomed Spirit; it is of those experiences of my 
early youth — amidst those calm and quiet Sabbaths 
— those week-day walks and employments — in my 
solitary chamber — on my lonely bed, unseen by 
human eye. Then it was that the word of Christ 
seemed to take root, and that the Saviour himself 
seemed to stretch forth the hand of a brother to aid 
the feeble attempt to be a doer of God's word. If I 
possess the smallest measure of that grace, which it 
is my office to commend to others, it is grace wel- 
comed in the early morning of my life. Beloved 
youth — lambs of the flock — come and follow Jesus, 
the Shepherd and Bishop of your souls ! In this 
early morning of your being, seek and you will find 
him. On these precious Sabbaths — amidst your 
daily walks and works — in your solitary chambers — 
on your lonely beds — commune in silence with your 
own hearts ; say, Lord, lift up thou the light of thy 
countenance upon me. Give me thy Spirit. Sus- 
tain, aid, guide, transform me by thy grace ! 

But I turn to those in middle and busy life. For 
a quarter of a century, I have been occupied in the 
cares, and interests, and perplexities, and changes of 



THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 137 

busy life. Need I now repeat, what must appear in 
all my public discourses and private conversations, 
what a growing sense I have had of the need 
of grace along the whole path of life; of the 
fitness of that path for discipline, urging us to seek 
that needed grace ; and of the presence of that grace 
at our utmost, and at all our need ; until I have 
learned to say, that I know that God's gracious gifts 
are the only solid good, the only durable riches of 
the present life ; that godliness, in my own feeblest 
measure, hath at least the promise of the life that 
now is ? O yes ; if upon you, who are bearing the 
heat and the burden of life's busy day — who are 
exposed to its temptations — I urge God's grace, it is 
grace which I seem to have experienced amidst the 
commonest affairs of earth, and amidst its most try- 
ing vicissitudes; grace outshining the greatest bless- 
ings of earth, and still cheering amidst the greatest 
perplexities and anxieties of earth, and pointing 
through, and leading through the path of discipline, 
to the end of discipline, even "the salvation of our 
souls." Be this your prayer : " Teach me to do thy 
will, thy Spirit is good, lead me into the land of 
uprightness." 

But again ; with many of you, I approach old 
age. May I say, then, to my beloved friends, 
advancing, like myself, with steady step, to no dis- 
tant grave, and to the "judgment-seat of Christ;" 
whose limit is set to a mere score, or half score, of 
years ; for myself ', I know not how to meet this 
gloomy prospect, save in the light of the grace of 
God. As I approach old age myself, I feel a more 
12* 



138 THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 

deep desire to realize the sustaining, aiding, guiding, 
and transforming power of grace. Can you wonder 
that I feel the same desire for those who are pressing 
so close upon the end of their course, so near the bar 
of God? As I live among you longer, and know 
you better, and receive more and more of your 
kindness, and think more and more what you are, 
and whither you are going, what you may be 
losing, and what you might be gaining in the 
brief season that yet remains, my very soul seems 
knit to your souls — my heart to your heart — while I 
beseech you, that you receive not the grace of God 
in vain. If life's cares and perplexities thicken on 
your path, despise not the chastening of the Lord, 
nor faint when you are rebuked; but receive the 
discipline of the Father, that you may soon be re- 
ceived as his sons. If prosperity still cheer you, 
and seem giving fair promise for all your future 
course, be not guilty of the greatest folly of human 
life — the cleaving to riches " until they are corrupted ; 
to gold and silver until it is cankered;" until, at 
length, leaving this world, possessed of treasures that 
you cannot bear away, and without "grace," you 
shall "howl for the miseries that shall come upon 
you." Rather, accept the grace that still meets you 
in the decline of life : be icise with the wisdom of old 
age. Be sure that the light of prosperity and the 
gloom of adversity, are alike passing into outer dark- 
ness ; and that only by grace can you walk through 
the dark valley of old age and death, and meet the 
glories of eternity. Brethren of the church, advanc- 
ing with me to old age — think what you need, and 



THE EXPERIENCED TEACHER. 139 

show forth to old men what grace may give at life's 
last stage. Alas ! grace in vain, three-fourths of 
your life-time, will not crown old age with glory. 
O, if now you are seeking for recovery ', seek also for 
establishment in the grace of God. You, at least, 
are not young Christians, that your path should have 
only the dawning of the morning. Let it glow as 
with the light, almost brightened into a perfect day. 

The land of silence and of death 

Awaits our next remove ; 
may these poor remains of breath 

Teach the wide world thy love. 

By long experience have we known 

Thy sovereign power to save; 
At thy command we venture down 

Securely to the grave. 



SERMON VII. 



JANUARY 28, 1838. 



OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 



2 Corinthians 6 : 1. 

We then, as workers together with him, beseech you that ye 
receive not the grace of God in vain. 

The apostle's appeal is official, and on the ground 
of support from the same source as his high commis- 
sion. He claims to be sent and aided from on high ; 
thus enforcing the appeal from experience. 

1. The appeal is official, as an ambassador for 
Christ. The official character of the priesthood has 
been acknowledged in all nations, and in all times. 
Of course, we must suppose that the religions office 
is suited to the nature of man ; to inherent and ever- 
existing wants ; to necessities of the soul of man, as 
universal as of food, and raiment, and shelter to the 
human body. It is not more true, that men in their 
lowest state — in every state, need and seek those 



OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 141 

supplies for their bodies, than it is that they need, 
and seek, and cleave to the officers of religion, as a 
guide, and solace, and support to their minds. The 
game of the savage, and his hut, and the skin of the 
wild beast, prove that he feels the common wants of 
the body; and his adherence even to a base and 
ignorant priesthood, proves as truly that he feels the 
common wants of the conscience and the heart of 
man. No ignorance on the part of the people, no 
baseness on the part of the priesthood, have been 
able to abolish the religious office, which exists, and 
must exist, as long as man is man. Man is as inca- 
pable of saying, there shall be no priests, as that there 
shall be no food, or raiment, or habitation. 

What force there is, then, in the apostle's appeal — 
"We then, as ambassadors for Christ" — when it is 
made really and truly, in the office which human 
nature craves and claims ; by apostles, and prophets, 
and evangelists, and pastors, and teachers, given by 
the Saviour to man. Nay, the authority is not 
wholly lost, even when they are unworthy of their 
office, if they still bear the true message from heaven. 
Were the accusation true, that they point a road to 
others, in which they take no step themselves, still 
their office were worthy of reverence and their in- 
structions of obedience. "The scribes and phari- 
sees," said our Saviour, " sit in Moses's seat : All 
therefore that they bid you, that observe and do : 
but do not after their works, for they say and do 
not." Better, far, obey the holy advice of an unholy 
ministry, than to make its character an apology for 
one's own unholiness. 



142 OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 

But if the official character be duly borne — i. e., 
with a true consecration of ourselves to Him who 
has appointed us, with an honest desire and effort to 
have that grace effectual in ourselves which we 
commend to others, and with the urgency and the 
consistency of a personal experience of its power — 
then what high claims has our office upon men — as 
though God did beseech them by us ! What high 
claims, exalted rather than debased by our many 
imperfections ! 

True, the "treasure is in earthen vessels," as 
easily marred or broken as the meanest potsherds of 
the earth; but therefore are we the more able to 
show forth the excellence of God's power, aiding us, 
that we, as his officers, may aid others. True, we 
were ourselves "children of wrath, even as others;" 
but therefore able to speak in our office from our 
own deep conviction — "knowing the terrors of the 
Lord," to arouse your minds to a saving terror. 
True, we are weak, and ignorant, and so bound 
under the power of sin and Satan, that, unaided, we 
can never assume the image of the Saviour : but 
therefore we come to you with the deepest assurance 
of the reality and value of the grace of God ; of the 
change it can work in the character of man ; of the 
house from heaven with which it can clothe him, 
when his earthly house of this tabernacle shall be 
dissolved ; and of a life eternal, swallowing up our 
mortality. Therefore are we prepared, even while 
the change goes on imperfectly and slowly, and 
amidst our very struggles with sin and Satan, to 
awaken in your minds the faith of things unseen — 



OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 143 

of a Spirit brooding over and breathing on the heart 
of man, to change it into the image of God, and from 
glory unto glory. True, amidst the needful disci- 
pline, our "outward man" may seem ready to per- 
ish; but not without our being the more able to 
show the "inward man renewed day by day," and 
"our light affliction, which is but for a moment, 
working out for us a far more exceeding and eternal 
weight of glory." What if we are weak, erring, 
sinful 1 — what if we come to you in weakness, and 
fear, and much trembling? — still, if in the lowest 
degree we are faithful ministers, then do we come to 
you, sustained in our very infirmities — strengthened 
in our very weaknesses — guided at the turns and by- 
paths of temptation, and back even from our wan- 
derings — aided and cheered in a growing control over 
every besetting sin : and while we stand before you, 
with the whole imperfection of our humanity, its 
lines and colors of sinfulness are gradually fading 
away, and we, "beholding as in a glass the glory of 
the Lord, are changing into the same image, from 
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 
The official badge of the ambassador of Christ is, 
weakness sustained — ignorance taught — sinfulness 
forgiven and subdued — an earthen vessel, laden with 
the richest of all treasures. Such an officer is pre- 
pared for his office, as sinless angel could not be — in 
all the humility and meekness of a sinner forgiven 
and assisted, to beseech his fellow-sinners to be 
reconciled to God. 

2. The appeal of a faithful ministry is made in 
the confidence of divine assistance: "We then, as 



144 OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 

workers together with him, beseech you that ye 
receive not the grace of God in vain." 

The Christian minister may assert himself as a 
co-worker with God, hi view of the whole provision 
for men's reconciliation; but chiefly as proclaiming 
the '-'gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven :" assuming, that if indeed he do proclaim the 
gospel, then is he accompanied by the power for 
which the apostles were to wait, until the Holy Ghost 
should come upon them. 

It was this power that the apostle assumed as 
being present with him, manifested in the living 
epistles, written not with ink, but with the Spirit of 
the living God ; nor proved lacking by the blinded 
minds of those who believed not. 

This, then, is the glory of the Christian ministry, 
that the " gospel" it proclaims is '-with the Holy 
Ghost sent down from heaven:" that there is power, 
not in, but icith the officers whom God has ap- 
pointed: justifying the appeal, "that ye receive not 
the grace of God in vain,*' and the reproach, "If 
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, in 
whom the god of this world hath blinded the minds 
of them which believe not, lest the light of the glori- 
ous gospel of Christ should shine unto them." 

My hearers, if my own ministry is hi the lowest 
degree faithful ; if it be of the " gospel."' then is it in 
that degree with the Holy Ghost ; proved so by liv- 
ing epistles, vdierever the gospel is believed; nor 
proved lacking by the multitude who believe not 
the glorious gospel of Christ. Let us think on 
this subject. Too sensible am I of imperfection, 



OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 145 

to dare boast of things beyond my measure ; and yet 
I am too sincere, too desirous to be found faithful by 
the Master at his appearing, to dare assert any lower 
claim than that the Divine Spirit co-works with my 
official work. I would not dare occupy this station, 
if I did not trust for the promised presence of my 
Lord ; enabling that measure of fidelity which may 
justify the appeal, "We then, as workers together 
with God;" if I did not believe that my appeal is 
accompanied by the Holy Spirit, at least striving 
and convincing, that it may convert and perfect. 

If any would answer this assertion, by asking for 
the living epistles — more numerous and more evident 
than I dare to claim — I, on my part, have a right to 
ask, before I allow you to deny my assertion of the 
presence of the Divine Spirit — Who darkened that 
light, which under my ministry, has flashed on your 
minds, again and again, the sure token of the present 
Spirit? Who blasted with forgetfulness those reso- 
lutions which the Spirit prompted, suddenly under 
the hearing of the word 1 Who allowed the cares 
of the world, and the deceitfulness of riches, and the 
lusts of other things, to choke the word, and make it 
unfruitful, after it seemed to be taking root, under 
the watering of the Spirit ? or, who allowed it to be 
blasted by the scorching sun of temptation, or to be 
taken from the heart, where the very Spirit had 
lodged it — by Satan catching it up, as the birds the 
seed sown by the wayside ? 

Admitting a ministry to be ineffectual upon any 
or upon many, there are other questions to be raised 
besides its fidelity and skill ; ay, and besides the 
13 



OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 

co-working power with that ministry. Those ques- 
tions are all important, and I pray that I may duly 
and daily consider them : but there are questions 
deeply interesting to the people — as to their welcome 
of a ministry which is in very deed and truth attended 
by the Holy Ghost. If the Saviour has sent you an 
ambassador, — if that ambassador is attended by the 
co-working Spirit, and if that invisible Presence is 
felt in your inmost selves, under the ministry of the 
word, — ask not for the living epistles, but read the 
living and burning lines of your guilt and condemna- 
tion in your own bosoms, if you welcome not the 
co-working Spirit, and tremble under the fearful 
responsibility ; dread the guilt and danger of a sin 
against the Holy Ghost, which, if you persist in it, 
can never be forgiven ! 

You have before you now a matter most deeply 
worthy of your consideration. I dare assert, without 
the fear of contradiction, that my ministry has often 
carried conviction to your conscience, and roused 
the desire of your heart ; that the terrible and cheer- 
ing truths of the gospel have fallen, at least for a 
moment, by the wayside, or sprung up on the stony 
ground, and among the thorns and briers. I dare 
assert that you have felt the power of the attending 
Spirit, even to the point of strife with your reluctant 
or rebellious inclinations: and, without wishing to 
deny my own responsibility, / cast back the awful 
responsibility on yourselves ! — who, convinced of sin, 
even for a moment, have not turned from it ; who, 
desiring God's favor, even for a moment, have not 
cloven to it, and received its encompassing as a 



OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 147 

shield ; who, seeing your duty, even for a moment, 
have refused to do it; who, desiring eternal rest, 
even for a moment, have let go that desire, and lost 
yourselves amid the lusts and cares of other things. 
Yes, I cast back the responsibility on you. Yet, 
while I chide and rebuke, still beseeching you to 
behold with the ministry set over you, a power which 
is not in its weakness — to receive the co-working 
Spirit, which refuses not its presence and its aid to 
the least and most unworthy, who sincerely bear the 
embassy of Christ to men. 

The appeal of the Christian ministry, "that ye 
receive not the grace of God in vain," is before you, 
attempted after the example of the apostle. And 
now, Avill you receive as truths what we assert from 
the deep convictions of our own minds — what we 
dare claim of your conscience and hearts, which are 
but the likeness of our own? Will you receive as 
truths, which approve themselves to your own 
inward nature, the sin and misery of man? Will 
you accept our feeble testimony, from experience 
along the path of life, of the sustaining, guiding, 
aiding and transforming power of the grace of God ? 
Will you give heed to our official call, as if the 
Saviour himself called you — as ambassadors of Christ 
— as though God did beseech you by us ? Will you 
welcome the enabling Spirit? until we can say 
together, • : We all, with open face, beholding as in 
a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the 
same image, from glory to glory, even as by the 
Spirit of the Lord." 






148 OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 

As well noio as ever, and far better now than ever, 
may the question between you and the Christian 
ministry come to its issue. If you have lingered, or 
been unfaithful, what other time for decision can be 
so favorable as now 1 — now, while life is spared, and 
the day of grace lengthened out, which may be so 
suddenly cut short; now, while God is instructing 
you by the discipline of personal and social anxieties ; 
now, on the holy Sabbath — the peculiar day for the 
visitations of grace, and for the foretastes of the joys 
of heaven. Yes, and now especially, when, I dare 
assert, you feel the convincing power of the Spirit of 
grace, the inward promptings to seek first the king- 
dom of God ; when that Spirit is talking to you, and 
saying, " This is the way, walk ye therein ; " when 
the word of God, with the Spirit, is falling on your 
heart, and when you are ready to reply to my 
urgency, " Almost thou persuadest me to be a Chris- 
tian." Can there be a better time for the decision of 
your whole soul, for breathing the new life of the 
Spirit, for the beginning of obedience and salvation, 
than note, when only at the point of strife can the 
Spirit be forced away from you 1 



I have here charged you as seven months ago, and 
I will not now deny that solemn appeal. Rather let 
me assert of the past, — the Spirit was present then, 
and yours was the guilt, if you refused him admission 
to your bosoms ! He was not then away, in any 
other sense than you put him at distance by resisting 
his strivings — by vexing and grieving his unuttera- 



OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 149 

ble kindness ; and he is not now with you, except as 
you will be with Him. If he was away from this 
church seven months ago, where was he? What 
journey had he gone ? What other business occupied 
him, to hinder his entrance and abode in your bosom? 
Alas, he went no whither ; he withdrew to no dis- 
tance, but such as may have been made by your 
own giving place to the devil ; by corrupt communi- 
cation proceeding out of your mouth ; by your want 
of kindness, and tender-heartedness, and forgiveness ; 
by your bitterness, or wrath, or clamor, or evil 
speaking ; by your refusing to be followers of God, 
as dear children, and to walk in love, as Christ also 
hath loved us. And if he was aivay from any of the 
people — if during these intervening months he has 
been away — be sure that he travelled no journey, 
that he withdrew no distance, but that which your- 
selves set between you and him, when you refused 
his gracious visitations. And if there is any thing 
which I should call you to repent of, it is that you 
have forced the striving Spirit away from you, and 
made Omnipresence itself at distance and absence from 
your refusing and rebellious hearts ! it is of the 
unkindness with which you have vexed him; the 
folly with which you have hazarded his eternal 
separation from you. 

With these views of the past and the present, then, 
/ am not anxious to find out the signs of the peculiar 
visitation of the Spirit, in any other sense than each 
willing and obedient heart may prove his entrance 
and abode; in any other sense than each several 
path may be seen departing from iniquity. To you 
13* 



150 OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 

who receive the Spirit, he is present — to you who 
will receive him, he vrill be present, in all the powers 
of a renewing and sanctifying Spirit; and did I 
suppose that I held the ministry on any other tenure 
than as co-working with this all-present Spirit, I 
would leave it to-day, nor lift again in this work my 
helpless hands. Did I suppose there ever had been 
a time, did I suppose there ever could he a time, in 
which I might not urge the acceptance of the grace 
of God, with every assurance of the presence of the 
Holy Spirit, I would retire from a service in which I 
was not supported by power from on high. 

Think not that while I thus speak, I would lessen 
any man's conviction of the presence of the Holy 
Ghost among us at this present time. Rather would 
I increase it. Rather would I say, There is not 
among us a man who apprehends the fulness and 
the glory of that presence ! who is duly awed or 
encouraged by that overwhelming presence ! But 
that presence is not new. It was, when you closed 
your eyes from the unwelcome sight; when you 
closed your heart from his unwelcome fellowship ; it 
was, it is, it will be, among us, though we should 
incur the damning guilt of resisting every one of his 
strivings, of vexing and grieving him in every 
instance of his kindness. It was, it is, it will be, 
with all encouragement, with all guidance, with all 
fellowship, under the unaltered assurance, " Who- 
soever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be 
saved." O, that a sense of the Spirit's presence 
might indeed settle on our souls; of that presence 
abiding for ever, which Jesus assured as his rising 



OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 151 

and ascending gift to man, with his outward gift of 
apostles, and prophets, and pastors, and teachers, to 
" rebellious" man. 

With regard to the peculiar presence of the Holy 
Ghost, you may mistake the indications which 
encourage you ; you may say, Lo here ! or Lo there ! 
at signs which are uncertain or deceiving— at signs 
unworthy of the purity and wisdom of the divine 
Spirit ; nor is it needful to you to decide before the 
time, when his power shall be manifest in the fruits. 
It is enough for you at any time and at all times to 
know that the Saviour has given Him to ?nan, as at 
Pentecost, under the unchanged assurance that who- 
soever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be 
saved ; that the new covenant secures his presence 
among you, to write the law of God upon the heart, 
and that the unchanged and abiding ordinances of 
Heaven bear continual witness to that covenant. 
Ceaseless as the sun, rising daily and pouring his 
flood of light upon the earth, and returning yearly 
his annual round; ceaseless as the moon and the 
stars, in fulfilling the ordinances of the Most High — 
so ceaseless is the presence of God's Spirit among 
men, to be welcomed or refused, to be honored or 
despised ! 

Professors of the Christian faith ! think not to 
shelter your delinquences under a charge on the 
absent Spirit. Prepare not yourselves for future 
delinquences by expecting the departure of the Spirit. 
The Spirit was with yon. while you were with Him. 
The Spirit forsook you, only when you forsook Him. 
The Spirit will be with you, if you will be with Him 



152 OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 

If ye seek him, he will be found of you, and only if 
you forsake Him will He forsake you. 

Sinners ! think not to shelter yourselves under- a 
charge on the absent Spirit, under the fancy that He 
is too far away to work in you to will and to do of 
his own good pleasure, to enable you to work out 
your own salvation. Every month, every day, every 
hour, every moment, in which you have not had the 
Spirit within you, nearer than the vital air, yours 
has been the guilt and the folly of not breathing in 
the very Spirit breathed on you by your exalted 
Redeemer — of not asking and receiving, of not seek- 
ing and receiving, the ever-present Spirit. 

Pastor of the flock ! over which the Holy Ghost 
has made thee overseer ! think not to excuse a single 
neglect — a single degree of unfaithfulness — or to be 
satisfied with a lingering success for a single day, as 
if thou wert not a co-worker with God — as if thy 
words might not prove living and burning words in 
the hearts of the people ! 

Brethren, hearers, these are the principles, and 
the only principles, on which I can adopt the words 
of the apostle, "Therefore, seeing we have received 
this ministry, as we have received mercy we faint 
not." On these principles I came among you, 
asserting, the very first Sabbath, with fulness and 
earnestness, the doctrine of the ever-present Spirit ; 
and, standing before you this day, I do but renew 
the only gospel which I have tried to recommend — 
the only gospel in which I dare to glory. Nor will I 
publish to you "another gospel" — a gospel which 
does not urge upon every soul of man, and at every 



OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 153 

moment, the present Spirit. I will not offer a gos- 
pel of which I and you might be justly ashamed ; a 
gospel which, in the fulness of the Spirit's presence, 
passes and is gone ; a gospel which slips from the 
hand that lays hold on it ; a light which vanishes 
from the path on which it but flashes, " dazzling to 
blind," instead of guiding the feet in the way of 
peace. Rather give me grace, divine Spirit, to 
assert thy abiding presence ; to say, with all encour- 
agement, my few remaining years, "Ask and ye 
shall receive, seek and ye shall find, knock and it 
shall be opened unto you;" and to charge upon 
delinquency and guilt, "If our gospel be hid, it is 
hid to them that are lost, in whom the god of this 
world hath blinded the minds of them that believe 
not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ, 
who is the image of God, should shine unto them." 

n The land of silence and of death 
Attends my next remove; 
0, may these poor remains of breath 
Teach the wide world thy love." 

Relying upon the assurance of the co- working 
Spirit, earnestly asserted seven months ago, I have, 
during the intervening period, urged the great and 
transforming principles of the grace of God with deep 
and growing desires that they might be received 
with the Spirit. May I say, that again and again I 
have come forth to sow the seeds of God's word, 
steeped, almost, in my own warm and anxious 
thoughts, in hope that they might be cherished in 
your hearts, and bring forth an hundred fold. Yes, 



154 OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 

and that I might not fail, I have meanwhile appealed 
through all your bounds in behalf of the family and 
public worship — those two chief institutions by 
which the word of God is diffused and cherished 
among men. I have endeavored that each house 
should show the truths of God's word, glowing on 
every door-post, and on the palms of your hands, 
and on your foreheads ; and that the house of prayer, 
opened for all the people, might receive and send 
forth a community whom the Lord hath blessed : 
while, from house to house, in your private ear, I 
have besought you that ye receive not the grace of 
God in vain. 

It was in these circumstances, and, I trust, not 
without prayer for aid and direction from the same 
Spirit, that I met you at the beginning of this year, 
anxious to crown, by some important advice, this 
year, and all other years, with blessings ; and that I 
dared to say, I trust without forgetting the imperfec- 
tions of my ministry, " you have the gospel. The 
word of God is not lacking among you, accompanied 
by the co-working Spirit." I could not think, I 
dared not think, that striving to be faithful in the 
ministry of God's word — seeming to see clearly as at 
noon-day its plain and simple truths, and desiring, 
however imperfectly, to be a co-worker with God — 
I say I could not think, I dared not think, and I will 
not now think, that this ministry is lacking in essen- 
tial truths, or in the co- working Spirit ; and I will 
not think that it need be in vain ; that this life-giving 
word must needs fall like pebbles from the sower's 
hand, that our assertion of the co-working Spirit 



OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 155 

must prove itself like the fool's or the madman's 
expectation. Believing that I assert God's own 
truth, in his name and after the manner he has 
ordained, I dare not think that it must be ineffectual 
on your minds ; I dare not doubt its power to save 
you ; nor that yours will be the guilt and folly, if 
your eyes be blinded to the light of the glorious 
gospel of Jesus Christ, and yourselves be lost. It 
was in this confidence that I came, and with refer- 
ence to words of spirit and of life which I had 
uttered as an ambassador of Christ, that I made a 
new proffer, and charged home upon yourselves the 
inefncacy of the life-giving word, saying, Take heed 

HOW YE HEAR ! 

And, O, would you do it, what a change would 
soon be manifest in each heedful hearer, and in the 
whole state of society among us — the word of God 
taking root downward and bearing fruit upward ! 
Think — what saving principles have we brought 
forth ! What truths fitted to spring up, and grow r , 
and bear fruit ! What seeds of rich and repeated 
harvests, for ever! "The fear of the Lord is the 
beginning of wisdom." " He that soweth to the 
flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption, but he that 
soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life ever- 
lasting." Surely, when we cast those precious seeds 
into your bosoms, we did not kill the germ, and 
throw the mere dead kernel from our hand ! but 
living seeds, having within them the blade, and the 
ear, and the full corn in the ear, and new and in- 
creasing harvests. And, O, would you receive them 
as into soil well prepared, would you take heed how 



156 OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 

you hear ; would you take heed to the living truths 
of God's word; would you take heed to the Spirit, 
in the word and with the word ; would you meditate 
in the Spirit, and pray in the Spirit , would you even 
attempt to knock at the door of the Spirit; then 
should the seed which our feeble hands have cast, 
and which other men have cast, spring up and grow 
an abundant harvest, and both he that soweth and 
he that reapeth should rejoice together. 

This church — would it receive the only principles 
on which it is a church, the principles urged upon 
them at, and after, our November communion — the 
principles which return upon them at every Lord's 
Supper; would they take heed how they hear, of 
their communion in the body and the blood of Christ, 
and of the Spirit breathed upon them by their risen 
Saviour ; would they take heed to these eternal 
truths, and give over their lamentations over the long 
departed, and their joy over the short staying, Spirit ; 
would they cherish these eternal truths in their 
inmost minds; would they hold them fast, as the 
only stability of man ; would they watch lest they 
should withdraw one step from the Spirit, who in no 
other way can be withdrawn from them ; and at the 
first moment of that forced absence, would they 
mark his frowning, and yet kind and grieved look, 
like that of Jesus upon Peter, in the hall of Pilate ; 
would they take heed to the sure word of prophecy, 
the very first moment they find themselves in a dark 
place ; — how w r ould the day dawm, and the day-star 
arise in their hearts ! how near would be found that 
withdrawing Spirit ! how fixed, and firm, and active, 



OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 157 

and abounding that love, like Peter's to his risen Lord ; 
and like his, what lives of correct and exemplary 
piety would they live ; and how would each several 
path be seen, as " the path of the just, shining 
brighter and brighter to the perfect day !" 

The people, too — O if they would take heed how 7 
they hear the words of spirit and of life; if they 
would attempt the preparation of Cornelius, amidst 
each day's present knowledge; and if they would 
retain each new communication — the rich treasures 
which some single word may have opened in their 
mind — the desires and the resolutions ; would they 
take heed to the Spirit in the word and with the 
word ; would they attempt to knock at the door of 
the Spirit, then should they never find him absent, 
or distant, or unwilling. If they would take heed 
to the word received in the public assembly, when 
they are retired to the quiet of their families, by their 
own firesides, in their closets, on their beds, " search- 
ing the Scriptures daily," meditating by day and by 
night on the law of the Lord, and calling on his 
name ; then how would the word of the Lord strike 
root and grow, and with what fruits abound an 
hundred fold ! 

O, if any thing is wanting to make the grace of 
God effectual among us, beyond all that has been 
before — more reaching to every house, and to every 
heart — more purifying and more rich in all that is 
lovely and of good report — to give it course more 
deep, and thorough, and lasting, and growing — it is 
not, let me dare to say, more truth ; nay, it is not a 
new and special dispensation of the Spirit of truth, 
14 



158 OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 

but that you take heed to the truth already urged 
upon you, and to the Spirit who accompanies the 
truth from Pentecost until this very hour. 

Yes — under this same truth — these words of 
spirit and of life ; under this same Spirit, shed forth 
from our ascended Lord; under these ancient pro- 
visions, there may be at hand success to God's icord, 
more extensive, more reaching to every house and 
every heart, more pure, more deep, and lasting, and 
growing, than either we or our fathers have known. 
But if there be, it can be only on the unchanging 
and eternal principles of God's icord, and by taking 
heed to those principles as we have never done be- 
fore; by our "mixing faith" with the words we 
hear ; by our believing welcome of the ever-present 
Spirit. As I came to my vineyard this morning, 
methought I heard the word of prophecy hovering 
over it : " Thus saith the Lord, As the new wine is 
found in the cluster, and one saith, Destroy it not, 
for a blessing is in it, so will I do for my servant's 
sake, that I may not destroy them all : and I will 
bring a seed out of Jacob, and out of Judah an in- 
heritor of my mountains, and mine elect shall inherit 
it, and my servants shall dwell there, and Sharon 
shall be a fold of flocks, and the valley of Achor a 
place for the herds to lie dowm in, and for my people 
that have sought me." As I came to my long-sown 
fields this morning, methought I heard in my ears 
the words of the Saviour, as he sat at the w^ell of 
Joseph : ' ' Say not there are yet four months, and 
then cometh the harvest ; but lift up your eyes, and 
look upon the fields, for they are white already for 



OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 159 

the harvest : and he that reapeth, receiveth wages, 
and gathereth fruit unto life eternal, that both he 
that sowetk and he that reapeth may rejoice to- 
gether." 

Think not, then, that I have been urging you not 
to u receive the grace of God in vain," doubtful of 
the power accompanying the messages of grace; 
hesitating, in the hope that this year, this month, 
this week, this day, this hour, this moment, may be 
crowned with a blessing more extensive, more pure, 
more deep, lasting, and growing than either we or our 
fathers have known ; hesitating, among dying men, 
to urge and hope for the immediate, the present wel- 
come of the gospel, in its saving power, upon each 
and upon all. We shall die ! you will die ! The 
sentence is written on every forehead, and there is 
no reprieve. When ? Where ? How ? This year, 
or some other year ? In youth, or maturity, or old 
age? God only knows when, where, how; yet 
surely, you will die ! The death-roll will be brought 
forth each successive year, and doubtless our names 
will be found upon it. We shall die! And does 
the pastor dream of delay, and recommend that God's 
word move slowly among you? Did our warning 
last Sabbath, against allowing Satan that hour, that 
moment, to snatch away the good seed sown in the 
heart— against leaving it to be scorched on the rock, 
or to be choked among the thorns and briers ; or did 
our commendation of the one, only, due receiving 
the word, seem to you a check upon the rapid course 
of God's word? Did we check that rapid course — 
Did we say at the opening year, with the death-roll 



160 OFFICIAL CHARACTER AND ENDOWMENTS. 

in our hands, come slow — come few — to the only 
rock on which frail, dying man can rest 1 

And now, what shall I say, consistent with this 
whole discourse, and suited to dying man, but come 
quick — come all — fly like a cloud, and as doves to 
their windows. You icill die ! Hasten before the 
summons come. Come youth. Busy man come. 
Come, my companions, entering or amidst life's last 
stage. Human nature cries out, as with the voice of 
all generations, You will die ! Mix faith with the 
word you hear ; receive the grace of the gospel, free 
and full, and you shall live for ever. 



SERMON VIII 



FEBRUARY 4, 1838. 



OUR GOSPEL : THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER IN HIS 
PECULIARITIES. 



2 Corinthians 4 : 3. 
If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. 

Our discourse, to-day, turns upon the two words, 
•'our gospel." 

1. There is but one gospel; one essential truth; 
embracing one charge against man as a sinner, 
under condemnation — the victim of a guilty and 
helpless ruin ; and one gift to man, Christ Jesus, the 
crucified, risen, and ascended Redeemer, now with 
man on earth by his word and Spirit. 

The apostle asserts this oneness of the gospel — this 
unity of truth — in the beginning of the first Epistle 
to the Corinthians, in view of the diverse character 
and talents of its ministers, and rebuking the parti- 
san disposition of the Corinthians, who had ranged 
themselves, some under one and some under another 
14* 



162 THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 

favorite; as if Apollos, or Cephas, or Paul had 
preached each a different gospel — three gospels, in- 
stead of the one, only and single gospel of Jesus 
Christ. Hear how he chides, and teaches, and ex- 
horts them: "Now I beseech you, brethren, by the 
name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak 
the same thing, and that there be no divisions among 
you. and that ye be perfectly joined together in the 
same mind and in the same judgment. . . . Now this 
I say, that every one of you saith, I am of Paul ; 
and I of Apollos ; and I of Cephas ; and I of Christ. 
Is Christ divided ? — While one saith, I am of Paul ; 
and another I am of Apollos, are ye not carnal? 
Who, then, is Paul, and who is Apollos, but minis- 
ters by whom ye believed, even as the Lord gave to 
every man ? — We are laborers together with God : 
ye are God's husbandry, ye are God's building. 
According to the grace which is given unto me, as a 
wise master-builder, I have laid the foundation, and 
another buildeth thereon. But let every man take 
heed how he buildeth thereupon. For other founda- 
tion can no man lay, than that is laid, ichich is Jesus 
Christ^ 

Hear, also, his assertion to the Galatians, of the 
one gospel, and the curse he pronounces against man 
or angel who should proclaim another : " Grace be 
to you and peace from God the Father, and from our 
Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, 
that he might deliver us from this present evil world, 
according to the will of God and our Father: to 
whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. I marvel 
that ye are so soon removed from him that called 



IN HIS PECULIARITIES. 163 

you into the grace of Christ, unto another gospel; 
which is not another ; but there be some that trouble 
you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ. But 
though we or an angel from heaven preach any other 
gospel unto you, than that which we have preached 
unto you, let him be accursed." 

In like manner, now, amidst diversities of gifts to 
uninspired ministers, there is but one gospel. How- 
ever unlike they may be in their modes of commu- 
nication and illustration — however peculiar their 
experience of its cheering, aiding, and transforming 
power — all true ministers preach one and the same 
gospel; and those are false ministers, and have no 
title to the office which they hold, who preach 
another. Happy they who, amidst their own dark- 
ness, discern the true light ! who receive the light of 
the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, and reflect it on 
others ! who, conscious of their own darkness, ever 
cry, "Lord, show me thy light;" "Let my eye be 
single, that my whole body may be full of light!" 
O, who of miserable men is more deserving of pity, 
than the minister whose "eye is evil, and his whole 
body full of darkness" — the "blind leader of the 
blind" — the minister of a false, delusive, and de- 
structive gospel? 

Between the two extremes, viz., of a clear and 
full proclaiming of the one true gospel, and the pro- 
claiming, in its stead, a gospel false, delusive, and 
destructive, there must be various degrees. In ref- 
erence to those degrees, let all ministers, and the 
whole church with them, pray to be preserved from 
every thing which mars the beauty and obscures the 



164 THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 

glory of the true gospel, after the manner of that 
ancient prayer: "We beseech thee to hear us, good 
Lord, that it may please thee to illuminate all 
bishops, priests, and deacons, with true knowledge 
and understanding of thy word ; and that, both by 
their preaching and living, they may set it forth and 
show it accordingly." 

Need I, in concluding this assertion of the one 
gospel amidst diversities of gifts, declare unto you 
my earnest desire to rest all my own interests on the 
one only gospel — the one rock of our salvation ; and 
to proclaim to you that one gospel, in all simplicity 
and purity, until my work may be finished, and an 
undeserved crown may rest upon my head — yea, 
until your welcome to the one, only gospel shall 
become my crown of rejoicing *? 

It is acknowledged, of course, that a false gospel 
may be preached, and that the beauty and glory of 
the true gospel may be marred and obscured. If it 
be asked, how the hearer is to decide the doubtful 
case, I answer, first, by that singleness of eye, by 
which the whole body may become full of light: 
and, secondly, by looking through such a single eye 
upon the Fountain of all light, even as the Galatians 
were to look upon the gospel which the apostle had 
preached unto them; or as the Bereans searched 
the Scriptures daily, and found the one gospel veri- 
fied and glorious in the ancient prophets. There is 
no need of ignorance of the one gospel, amidst the 
false gospels every where proclaimed. Be ready to 
receive it; search the Scj^iptnres daily, the prophets 
and the apostles, and you will behold the one gospel 



IN HIS PECULIARITIES. 165 

in its glory. "If thine eye be single, thy whole 
body shall be full of light." Amidst all false 
gospels, you shall discern and welcome the one 
gospel. 

2. Nevertheless, there is emphasis in the phrase ot 
the apostle, our gospel. The one gospel, as pro- 
claimed by the apostle, in its essential glory, shone 
in a light and lustre 'peculiarly his own. 

The gospel is one ; and yet it is as diverse as the 
different media through which it shines on men. 
Peter, and Paul, and John proclaimed but the one 
gospel ; and yet that one gospel was seen glowing in 
the distinct and peculiar light of each of those true 
apostles; so that, preserving the most perfect one- 
ness in the gospel they proclaimed, there was the 
most perfect distinction, also, in their manner ot 
proclaiming it. Their sermons and epistles were 
severally their own — each glowing in its peculiar 
beauty and power, while they all combined in the 
more glorious display of the one gospel of Jesus 
Christ. If their several sermons and epistles had 
been alike; if Peter, and Paul, and John had 
adopted the same words and phrases, or even pre- 
sented the same views ; if their sermons and epistles 
had not glowed each in its own peculiar light, 
each in the glory which shone from their several 
paths ; if each had not proclaimed his own gospel ; 
then, neither separately nor combined, would they 
have shone on men, in the full " light of the glorious 
gospel of Jesus Christ." 

Consider Peter, first, in those wonderful sermons, 
on the day of Pentecost, in Solomon's porch, after 






166 THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 

the healing of the lame man, and before the Jewish 
Sanhedrim; how he stands forth, in all his own 
peculiarities — with all the humility and tenderness 
which belonged to the recollection of his fall and his 
repentance, and with all the ardor and boldness at 
once of his original character and of the new power 
which he felt had come upon him from on high — 
with all the decision which became him whom the 
risen Saviour had thus prepared and endowed that 
he might " strengthen his brethren," at the first 
onset in proclaiming the gospel. Those sermons 
could have been preached by no other apostle. The 
gospel at Pentecost, the gospel in Solomon's porch, 
the gospel before the Sanhedrim, was the one gospel 
of Christ, committed to all the apostles ; but its glory 
shone from Peter's path. 

The epistles of Peter are as eminently Petrine — 
not Pauline — in their whole strain and character, in 
their peculiar beauty and glory. His faithful coun- 
sels, for instance, date themselves from that scene of 
the Saviour's love and forewarning at the sea of 
Tiberias — " Knowing that shortly I must put off 
this my tabernacle, even as our Lord Jesus Christ 
hath showed me." His earnest encouragements 
from the mount of transfiguration, from whence, 
all but one dark night, a glory had always shone 
upon his steps : " We have not followed cunningly- 
devised fables, when we made known unto you the 
power and coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, but 
were eye-witnesses of his majesty ; for he received 
from God the Father honor and glory, when there 
came such a voice from the excellent glory, This 



IN HIS PECULIARITIES. 167 

is my beloved Son, in whom I am well pleased ; and 
this voice which came from heaven ive heard when 
we were with hi?n in the holy mount." 

Consider Paul, also. Who of all the apostles 
could have preached the one gospel after the manner 
of the converted Pharisee and persecutor — of the 
apostle to the Gentiles, in the light which beamed 
from his whole path of suffering and deliverance. 
If Paul preached the one gospel, it was in a glory 
peculiarly his own. Witness his sermon on the 
stairs of the castle — bold, composed, affectionate, 
persuasive, amidst the wild uproar of the people ; 
and that before king Agrippa, which called forth 
the remarkable acknowledgment, '-Almost thou per- 
suadest me to be a Christian." Not Apollos, not 
Cephas, not John, but Paul — the Pharisee, the ac- 
complice in the murder of Stephen, the furious 
persecutor, smitten down and struck blind on the 
road to Damascus, the baptized believer, and chosen 
apostle, and preacher of the faith which he once 
destroyed, in bonds for Christ's sake — sheds now 
"the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in 
the face of Jesus Christ,"' received from Him "who 
caused the light to shine out of darkness." 

You shall see the same peculiarity if you turn to 
his epistles. Paul only could have written them. 
The glory of the gospel shines from Paul's path. It 
was the humbled and believing persecutor only, who 
could commend the grace of God as in the first 
chapter of the first Epistle to Timothy : "And I 
thank Jesus Christ our Lord, who hath enabled me 
to be faithful, putting me into the ministry, who 



168 THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 

was before a blasphemer and persecutor and inju- 
rious ; but I obtained mercy because I did it igno- 
rantly in unbelief. And the grace of our Lord was 
exceeding abundant with faith and love which is in 
Christ Jesus. This is a faithful saying, and worthy 
of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the 
world to save sinners, of whom I am chief. How- 
beit, for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first, 
Jesus Christ might show forth all long-suffering, for 
a pattern unto them which should hereafter believe 
on Him unto life everlasting." And, without multi- 
plying quotations where all is peculiar, what an 
expression of his own personal experience in the 
gospel are these Epistles to the Corinthians — this 
second Epistle especially — and above all, the strain 
from which we have taken the exclamation, ' ' If onr 
gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." O, 
it was amidst the glory of the gospel shining on his 
own path, that the apostle seemed to see all to whom 
he proclaimed it — amidst the very light which shone 
upon the road to Damascus — the very "help of 
God" which came upon his weakness, and contin- 
ued for his lifetime — the " light of the glorious gospel 
of Christ, who is the image of God." Amidst such 
a light, who could perish, but the willingly blinded 
by the god of this world, the unbelievers of the 
gospel 1 

We might refer in like manner to John, and see 
at once the one only gospel, and yet that gospel 
glowing in a new and peculiar glory, in the writings 
of the beloved disciple ! How unlike is John's gospel 
to either of the other gospels, and yet how entirely 



IN HIS PECULIARITIES. 169 

one and the same ! How one and the same, and 
yet how glowing in its own peculiar glory ! How 
unlike John's epistles to Paul's or to Peter's, and 
yet how entirely one and the same ! How one 
and the same, and yet how glowing in their 
own peculiar intensity of love, flowing from the 
heart of the disciple whom Jesus loved, and who 
leaned on his Master's "breast at the last supper ! — 
the expression of what he had seen and handled of 
the word of life, that others might have fellowship 
in his fulness of joy. 

And for what is this diversity of gifts to the apos- 
tles of one gospel, and by the same Spirit, but that 
each may shed forth more brightly the one light, 
and that the light of all may be seen united, as in 
the New Testament, in the full splendor of the Sun 
of righteousness arisen on the world? For what, 
but to fulfil more gloriously the purpose of the gospel 
among men? "Now there are diversities of gifts, 
but the same Spirit; and there are differences of 
administration, but the same Lord. And there are 
diversities of operations, but it is the same God which 
worketh all in all. But the manifestation of the 
Spirit is given to every man to profit withal." 
-There is one body and one Spirit, even as ye are 
called in one hope of your calling. One Lord, one 
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who 
is above all, and through all, and in you all. But 
unto every one of us is given grace according to the 
measure of the gift of Christ." 

A mere general promulgation, such as any and 
every apostle could make, could not have been so 



170 THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 

powerful and so glorious as such special and peculiar 
sermons as could only flow from the lips of each. 
But this general promulgation were far better to aid 
the entrance than the progress of the path of life. 
Such pastoral epistles as Paul's, and Peter's, and 
John's — the advice of experience in all the trials of 
the Christian life — were indispensable for the edifica- 
tion of the saints ; and what a rich treasure has the 
Saviour thus given to all ages, for improvement in 
the Christian life ! 

3. I come now to assert, in deg?~ee, a similar pecu- 
liarity to the true ministers of the gospel, in every age; 
so that, while they proclaim the one only gospel, 
they do so most perfectly and gloriously, when they 
proclaim it from the depth of their own personal ex- 
perience ; when they proclaim it, especially, as their 
ovm gospel. Not, indeed, in the same marvellous 
and miraculous sense as the apostle, in his Epistle 
to the Galatians, but in his degree, may each true 
minister say, "I certify you, brethren, that the 
gospel which was preached of me was not after 
man. For I neither received it of men. neither was 
I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." 
O, no, it is not the mere general gospel which might 
be stated in the same words and phrases by all alike, 
but it is that same general and one only gospel, as 
it has shone on his own personal path, which he has 
received of the Saviour at each necessity of his life, 
that the true minister of Christ brings forth to those 
who hear him. It is a gospel, in this sense, pecu- 
liarly his own : not diverse from the one essential 
gospel delivered by our Lord and his apostles, but 



IN HIS PECULIARITIES. 171 

that very gospel, as it glows from the whole path in 
which the Lord hath led himself : not diverse from 
the one gospel, as delivered by the faithful ministers 
of his own and of all preceding times, but that very 
gospel, glowing in the peculiar light of all his own 
personal experience. I need, I think, do no more 
than assert a fact so obviously true, so obviously 
consistent with the whole tenor of Scripture, so 
obvious a fulfilment of the Saviour's promise to all 
his true ministers, " Lo, I am with you always, 
unto the end of the world." Instead of attempting 
even to justify the assertion, I will close this morn- 
ing's discourse by three remarks, suited to the point 
at which we have now arrived. 

1. The true rule to direct a minister in his com- 
munications to his fellow-men, is to proclaim the 
gospel as he has personally received it. It is only 
by reflecting on his own experience — by gathering 
up and bringing out the treasures of his own expe- 
rience — by shining forth in the lights which have 
cheered and guided him through his own darkness, 
that he can present the gospel in its true light to the 
eyes of men. Let no one imagine that by so much 
the more as the gospel thus preached becomes pecu- 
liarly his own, it will be so much the less the one 
gospel of Jesus Christ. Rather, as with Peter, and 
Paul, and John, in their discourses and epistles, in 
so much greater glory will the one gospel shine 
forth, in the peculiar light and glory of each. 

2. We are not, of course, to conclude, even among 
the true ministers of Christ, that the gospel shines 
the brighter, the nearer they are bought to a common 



172 THE CHRISTIAN TEACHER 

standard of manner and expression. Nay, on the 
supposition that the great truths of the gospel were 
preserved in any community, they would shine with 
a dimmer light, with a more obscure glory, in pro- 
portion as the ministers of it should employ the same 
words and phrases — as they should present the 
same views and applications of the grace of God — 
in proportion as they should fail to shed the peculiar 
light and glory which had fallen on each several 
path. Let all ministers be thus alike, and then 
would they severally hide the light specially given 
to them, instead of setting it on high, that all may 
see it. Let them be unlike, distributing severally 
the gifts which grace has divided to themselves: 
then how would each one's path shine as a Peniel 
upon the paths of his fellow-men ! And what a 
flood of light might be shed on the church of Christ ! 
3. They who would receive profit from the minis- 
try set over them, must expect it chiefly in its own 
special and peculiar light : and yet so that there be 
no divisions among them — no party views, as if there 
were one gospel of Paul, and another of Apollos, and 
another of Cephas. The skill and power of each 
ministry must be in its own pecidiarities, so far as 
they are the result of true Christian experience. It 
is not in what they are alike, but in what they are 
unlike, that you may see most clearly the one gospel 
on which you and they are to be built up. So that 
when you close your eyes against the peculiar light, 
you may be shutting them against a peculiar display 
of the true and glorious gospel. 



IN HIS PECULIARITIES. 173 

4. It may be supposed, further, not only that each 
true ministry is fitted to show forth the gospel in its 
own peculiar light, but that the providential care 
which decides the lot and assigns the place of each, 
may have fixed over each separate church that which 
may be suited to their own peculiar need; that if the 
gospel set over them be no better than the gospel set 
over any other people, it may shine on them in that 
peculiar light which is most fitted to guide their own 
path; that even in its peculiarities, as well as in its 
essence, it may come with blessings on the people ; 
justifying such an assertion as Paul's, " I am sure 
that when / come to you, I shall come in the fulness 
of the blessing of the gospel of Christ." 



15* 



SERMON IX. 

FEBRUARY 4, 1838. 

THE AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. 

2 Corinthians 4 : 3. 
If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. 

There is a difficulty in speaking of ourselves — a 
fear lest we should claim as manifest upon us, what 
may be really obscure or dark to every eye; and 
above all, "lest we should boast of things without 
our measure, and not according to the measure of 
the rule which God hath distributed unto us." I 
propose, nevertheless, this afternoon, to speak freely 
of myself, in my official character as a minister of 
the gospel ; and if there be in my ministry any thing 
peculiar and prominent, to trace it to its source in 
my own history, for my benefit and yours ; that I 
may more distinctly see, if indeed oar gospel be the 
one only gospel of the blessed Saviour ; and if it be, 
that I may leave upon you, with all its power, the 



175 

blessing and warning of the gospel I proclaim : "If 
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost." 

If there be any who would say, It is the form, and 
the manner, and the peculiar principles, and views, 
and the plans, and methods, of the ministry set over 
us, which obscure the glory of the gospel, and pre- 
vent its power; which hinder the growth of the 
saints unto the measure of the stature of the fulness 
of Christ, and which keep sinners from the Saviour ; 
let me first assure them how earnestly I have sought 
to be guided into the principles, and views, and 
methods of the true gospel ; and how I have seemed 
to discover them, for my guidance in this ministry, 
along the whole path of experience in Avhich I have 
been led. And that I may declare the one gospel 
more plainly and fully, bear with me while I trace 
back some traits of my ministry to their fountains, 
in my own experience. If this review seem to you 
a folly, bear with me in that folly. 

Of course, I profess to know and to preach but one 
gospel — the great truths which glow on every page 
of the history of Jesus, and in the Acts and in the 
Epistles of the apostles. May I be preserved from 
the curse of those who proclaim another gospel ! 

Nevertheless, this gospel I do preach, even as 
i" have received it — as I have found it my guide and 
stay along my path of life — in the manner, and 
form, and for the purposes in which / have found it 
a gospel to myself. I have arrived at an age, when, 
if ever, my principles and views may be considered 
as settled, and from which I may fairly review them 
for my own sake and that of others. In so far as I 



176 

am able to judge, they are the ripe fruit of my own 
experience. I pray that they may not prove to me 
or others, "grapes of Sodom and clusters of Gomor- 
rah." To me, it seems, that if in any sense I might 
speak of our gospel, it should be on that account not 
the less, but the more, the gospel of Christ. 

1. I have been led to undertake this discourse by 
the sudden bursting on my mind, in this house, last 
Sabbath evening, of one recollection of my life, 
which I perceived and stated to have given a direc- 
tion to my ministry — to have given prominence to 
one great and all-important truth, which I now 
set first in this review, viz., the all-pervading pres- 
ence and grace of the Holy Spi?Ht, with and in his 
word. I referred to the autumn and winter of 1808 
and 9, in the twenty-first year of my age, when I 
was impressed for months with a deep sense of God's 
presence, at once as the essential Deity, and in the 
visitations of the Holy Spirit. It was a period to be 
ever remembered in my personal history, for my recov- 
ery, and, as I have hoped, for my establishment in 
the grace of God — for the taking root in my soul of 
the seeds of character, in the quiet and silence of my 
return to my Father's house — may I say, for the 
aids of the ever-present Spirit in that blessed work : 
thus encouraging me in view of the Christian minis- 
try. This deep sense of the ever-present Spirit — of 
God, as man's helper, as well as man's watchful 
Judge — I trust has never utterly forsaken me : and 
if I have any grateful recollections of the path of 
near thirty years, it is that the sense of a present 
God — a present Spirit — has remained with even the 



THE AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. 177 

lowest degree of welcome on my path. I will not 
proceed without commending that great truth to the 
young, at the time of life when they peculiarly need 
at once the awe and the aids of a present God — the 
'period when they are forming their characters. But 
passing this commendation, let me say, that if I 
speak of the ever-present Spirit, rather than of the 
Spirit present especially at peculiar times and seasons, 
it is from the abiding impressions of near thirty 
years; might I almost say, from ignorance, dur- 
ing all that time, of any peculiar presence or 
absence of that blessed agent, save according to my 
own welcome and neglect. Other causes of my 
course in this matter will appear as I proceed, but 
not until I have — 

2. Referred to an early experience in the ministry, 
which has ever since fixed my mind upon the hope 
of immediate success in the gospel, by the agency of 
the same blessed Spirit. 

Let no one understand, that I have just spoken of 
the ever-present Spirit, or that I ever so speak, with 
any intimation that he abides as an inactive, ineffi- 
cient agent — as the mere witness of a dull and torpid 
church — of a dull and torpid community. On the 
other hand, it is because I believe the Saviour's 
assurance, that the Spirit abideth for ever — that I 
believe also that not a year, a month, or day, passes 
among us, vnthout his urgent strife ivith the people — 
without his pressing as it were with the streams of 
his love against every obstacle which opposes his 
welcome — and without affording the encouragement, 
at any time and at all times, that he will overcome 



178 the author's account of himself. 

those obstacles, and flow in with power on the hearts 
of the people ; that every year, and month, and day, 
and hour, and moment, we are encouraged to lift up 
our prayer, that Divine Providence would open the 
door of the word, with which the Spirit comes to the 
hearts of men; and that the Spirit would incline 
each heart and all hearts to give heed to that word. 
Hence, at least formally and publicly — I trust, also, 
in degree, sincerely and privately — I never fail to 
pray for an immediate and glorious work of the 
Spirit ; a work which shall establish the whole peo- 
ple on the solid rock, as doers of the Saviour's 
word. I so receive the doctrine of a Spirit abiding 
for ever, as to encourage and warrant the prayer for 
his immediate influence, in larger measure, and in 
wider extent — as to encourage each and all to ask 
and receive — as to encourage us to "attempt great 
things, to expect great things." I dare not so preach 
an ever ready gospel, as to make it nothing more 
than a never ready gospel. It was not with such 
views that I was impressed, as I entered on the min- 
istrations of the gospel : nor was it with such views 
that I was encouraged to undertake the work of a 
missionary to Pagan lands. Let me refer first to my 
home ministrations, and then to my foreign under- 
taking. 

The autumn and winter, from November, 1811, to 
the last of January, 1812, found me laboring for the 
spread of the gospel, under the deep impression of an 
ever-present Spirit, remaining from 1808, at Wil- 
liamstown, the northwesternmost township of this 
commonwealth ; employing no other means of public 



THE AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. 179 

impression and instruction than two services on the 
Sabbath, and an intermediate service during the 
week, but I trust with the word of God — the quick 
and powerful word — the sword of the Spirit, and 
with the united prayers of the church, that the Spirit 
might be received with the word in the heart of the 
people. And what did I see? Not that the ever 
ready Spirit is never ready ; but, so far as can be 
judged now, after twenty-six years, that He was 
then ready, and should, at each and all times, be 
proclaimed as a noiv present and ready Spirit. In a 
word, I saw, suddenly and rapidly increasing around 
me, the inquiry, a What shall I do to be saved?" 
with all the appearances of fixed decision and estab- 
lished character. After a brief ministry of three 
months, I parted from the people, with the deepest 
sense of the presence of the co-ivorking Spirit, giving 
effect to the feeble labors of my early youth, in a 
parting scene of tenderness and affection, which 
seemed not unlike to the assembled crowd on the 
shores of Miletus — and deeply assured, I trust, for 
my whole life long, that there is a Spirit among 
men who asks no delay, on his account, but who is 
at every moment ready to crown God's word with 
success ; that the ever-present Spirit is ever ready to 
enter and dwell in the hearts of the people. 

My foreign undertaking, to preach the gospel to 
the heathen, was fitted to deepen this impression — 
to fix this as the highest meaning of our Saviour's 
promise, " Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the 
end of the world;" — and I find the record that I 
received the success of my last ministrations in a 



180 the author's account of himself. 

Christian land, as an encouragement to my under- 
taking in behalf of the heathen. Within six weeks 
of my departure from Williamstown, I was on the 
wide Atlantic, often reflecting on that scene of 
interest, and writing, " How timely was this discov- 
ery of the power and grace of God ! intended as I 
hope by a kind parent, to encourage my heart, and 
thus prepare me to go forth and preach the gospel 
where Christ has not been named." If any thing 
was fitted to produce and deepen the conviction of 
an ever ready gospel — of an ever ready Spirit — of a 
gospel ever ready to burst forth into immediate and 
glorious success — it was such a recollection and 
such a design. 

I cannot leave this view without noticing my 
return, and the reaction of my missionary principles 
upon my home principles. Shall I say, then, that 
the effect of my missionary undertaking — my at- 
tempt with others to carry the gospel to the whole 
world — was to show me most clearly that we had 
grown into the habit at home of limiting the unlim- 
ited gospel — cramping and restraining the power of 
the Spirit within our own lines of success — still nar- 
rower and narrower, until we may almost say that 
the Spirit in many quarters is restrained just in pro- 
portion to his supposed enlargement — is presumed, 
and represented, and expected to be as absent at some 
seasons as he is present at others — as much on the 
withholding hand at some times as he is on " the 
giving hand' 11 at others; and of course that inas- 
much as there is a gospel one-third or one-sixth or 
one-tenth of the time which justifies the assertion, 



THE AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. 181 

"now is the day of salvation," — two-thirds, five- 
sixths or nine-tenths of the time there is no such 
gospel, and no such day of salvation. 

That such has seemed to me to be the tendency 
of public opinion, I cannot deny; nor that it has 
given a direction to my own modes of speaking and 
proceeding. After near seven years from my return, 
and the partial recovery of my health, I undertook 
the pastoral office, deeply impressed with the re- 
straining effect of popular religious opinion upon the 
free and ever-present gospel, with the hindrance out 
of revivals corresponding almost entirely to the sup- 
posed advantages in revivals ; and I determined, as 
far as in me lay, to offer at all times the unrestrained 
gospel — to declare each day as the accepted ti?ne, and 
a day of salvation. The longer I live, the more I 
study the Scriptures, and the more I survey society, 
the more clearly do I see it to be my duty to attempt 
to proclaim the gospel to each passing hour in all 
the fulness of the Spirit; and the less do I dare to 
proclaim a gospel with any bounds of place or time; 
and the more sure do I seem to be that a gospel 
limited by space and time can never have extensive, 
and true and lasting success. Such a gospel must 
fail in the nature, and extent, and abiding of its 
influence. Let the doctrine of the Spirit be accepted 
and welcomed, as is the doctrine of the Messiah. 
Why should the sermon and public apprehension 
of the gospel be narrower than the psalms we 
sing 1 

"Joy to the world, the Lord is come, 
Let earth receive her King; 

16 



182 

Let every heart prepare him room. 
And heaven and nature sing. 

No more let sins and sorrows grow, 

Nor thorns infest the ground; 
He comes to make his blessings flow, 

Far as the curse is found." 

3. If there is any peculiarity of my own ministra- 
tions consistent with the preceding views, and with 
the essential gospel, which is more marked than 
any other, it proceeds from a deep and growing 
sense of a gospel beside the whole path of life — of the 
presence of the striving, renewing and sanctifying 
Spirit ivith the discipline of life — the very gospel to 
which the whole cloud of witnesses calls and stim- 
ulates us, that we may look unto Jesus, and lay aside 
every besetting sin. I have often expressed this 
view. Allow me to refer to it as arising upon me in 
the progress of my life. 

The period of life from sixteen to twenty-three — 
seven years of youth — was a season of unbroken 
prosperity — of health, of sufficient means, of the 
good- will and confidence of the wise and good, and 
of bright prospects for the future. That season of 
prosperity I cannot now say was unblest ; for if I 
may look upon any period of my life as the period 
of establishment, as the period for the taking root of 
the seeds of character, it was that. From my own 
experience as I pass, let me commend to all, and 
especially to the young, the season of prosperity as, 
having its advantages, no less than adversity. Yet 
if in my own case I may say those years of prosperity 
were blessed, I am obliged to say that I needed they 



183 

should be followed by just such years of illness, and 
disappointment, and difficulties, as divine wisdom 
has seen fit to bring on. From August, 1812, when, 
amidst severe and peculiar difficulties in my mission- 
ary undertaking, I was brought low by the fever of 
India, my life became a scene of weakness, and fear, 
and trembling, and difficulties ; and for twenty-five 
years I have had, amidst abounding mercies, a share 
of the conflicts, and trials, and temptations of life — 
in the world — exposed to the besetting sins of my 
nature. 

And, O, what a scene of opportunity for the 
knowledge of myself, and for the kindness of a 
covenant God, does the whole path of life seem to 
me, as I review it this day ! Think not, as I speak 
thus, that I can review it with self-complacence ; is 
it not rather with shame, and sorrow, and repent- 
ance 1 O, there is nothing like the hour of trial — 
like the chastening of the divine hand — for rebuking 
the pride and for discovering the sins and follies of 
man ; no time like the hour of trial for the power of 
the Spirit, convincing of sin. Have I not said, a 
thousand times, "O Lord, when thou with rebukes 
dost correct man for his iniquity, thou makest all 
his beauty to consume away like a moth." And 
amidst those searching trials, designed to show a 
man what was in his heart, have I not said for 
myself the prayer which privately and publicly I 
have often commended to you, " Search me, O God, 
and know my heart; try me, and know my 
thoughts ; and see if there be any wicked way in me, 
and lead me in the way everlasting." 



184 the author's account of himself. 

But if I can speak of the path of life as giving the 
opportunity of self-knowledge, so it seems to me I 
can of a covenant-keeping God beside that path — a 
God exercising loving-kindness, as well as righteous- 
ness and judgment, in the earth. You have heard 
me again and again speak of a striving of the Spirit, 
even amidst a manifold resistance — and much more 
of the kindness of the Spirit where those aids are 
welcomed, along the whole path in which divine 
Providence leads us : — amidst the lightest as well as 
the severest trials of our lot — even though those 
lighter trials were but as the single hairs of the 
head, and each occurrence as unimportant as a 
sparrow's fall — yet even with them of a present 
Spirit, striving along the whole path of life, aiding 
us through the temptations common to man, again 
and again helping our infirmities, and giving birth 
to groanings which cannot be uttered. Need I say 
that in thus commending the Spirit I have been 
urged by the experience of many years, leaving upon 
my own mind the deep, the humbling, and yet 
cheering sense of the presence of the Saviour by his 
Spirit on the whole path of life — of the fellowship 
with the Father and the Son, by which our joy may 
be full. 

That I have profited by the presence of a covenant 
God along the path of life, as becomes so great a 
privilege, I dare not say; nor need I describe the 
fluctuations in my own personal welcome and enjoy- 
ment of that blessed privilege. Suffice it to say, that 
my own changes have not followed the changes of 
society ; that I have never found a state of society so 



THE AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. 185 

dull as to hinder my own approach to the throne of 
grace in my time of need, nor so bright and reviving 
as to bring there a reluctant and rebellious heart. Not 
mid-ocean, — not even the land of pagan darkness 
and shadow of death, has seemed distant from God's 
Spirit, if my heart were inclined to seek him. Not 
the most solemn assembly of God's people has 
seemed near, if my heart were filled with the lust of 
other things. 

In closing this review, let me say, that / know no 
other way of proclaiming the gospel than as I seem 
to have received it myself — than to show forth what- 
ever light may glow from the path in which the 
Lord hath led me ; especially in the great principles 
of the common salvation. To attempt to proclaim 
the gospel in the manner and form of any other man, 
were to dim the very light which may have been 
committed to me. To conceal or to withhold the 
great principles of salvation, as they glow in my 
own mind, would be like the guilt of extinguishing 
them in my own bosom. I may say the like of 
plans and procedures. "Actions speak louder than 
words." I cannot plan or execute, or accept and 
execute the plans of others, in such way as to put 
those great principles in doubt before the community; 
as to indicate a gospel, or a Spirit of times, and 
seasons, and places ; as to limit the opportunities and 
claims of the glorious gospel. I can do nothing to- 
day which denies the truth of yesterday or to- 
morrow, or here which denies the truth of any other 
place. I cannot hold candles to the sun, to lead you 
16* 



186 

to its light, nor deny the blaze of yesterday, or to- 
morrow, in order to make you walk in it to-day. 

And now, having with all freedom spoken of 
myself, and of the gospel which I have received 
along the path of life, I ask, Is it another gospel? 
Inasmuch as there is any thing peculiar in my 
words, and plans, and deeds, as a minister of Christ, 
do I publish another gospel ; or do I not so much the 
more publish and urge the one only gospel of the 
grace of God; and with the more right to say, "If 
our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost?" 
O, is our gospel any other than the gospel ; and is it 
ours in any other sense, than that we show it forth 
as vie have received it — as we have seen, and felt, 
and handled of the word of life? And have we 
published and urged it — and at this present moment, 
at this very u noiv" dare we publish and urge it, as 
any less than a light arisen on every man's path, 
which nothing can darken, but the welcomed influ- 
ence of the god of this world ; the Saviour knocking 
at every man's door; the convincing, and convert- 
ing, and sanctifying Spirit, striving with every 
man's conscience, and appealing kindly to every 
man's heart — " Whosoever shall call upon the name 
of the Lord, shall be saved?" Even so, with the 
limited experience of youth, I attempted to proclaim 
it in early life, amidst the tokens of the welcomed 
Spirit ; and even so, after the experience of many 
years, would I proclaim it still. 

" may these poor remains of breath 
Teach the wide world thy love." 



187 

I may appeal to this whole assembly, with the new 
urgency of the present moment, Have I not spoken 
to you of a gospel within hand's reach, within the 
glance of the eye — of a Spirit near as the vital air 
you breathe, as the light of the sun which shines 
upon you — of a Spirit following you in every path 
of life; and have I not charged on you the guilt 
and the danger of refusing and despising so great 
and so near a mercy? O, when came we to you, 
without the offer of a present Spirit ? without charg- 
ing upon you the crime of resisting that Spirit? 
And if we would urge you at this moment, with 
new earnestness, let it be that you lay hold of a 
blessing which has been every day within your 
reach — that you look upon Jesus, who has been 
every day looking upon you — that you breathe in 
the Spirit which he has been every day breathing on 
you — that you walk in the healing light that has 
been ever risen upon you, and that you suffer not the 
god of this world to blind your minds, so that the 
light of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ cannot 
shine upon you. 

I may appeal also to this church, in behalf of the 
gospel which I have proclaimed to them, "for the 
perfecting of the saints — for the edifying of the body 
of Christ." Have I not sought out, and in some 
degree brought forth, those principles of growing 
piety, by which we might all come in "the unity of 
the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, 
unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature 
of the fulness of Christ?" Brethren, in those words 
of warning and of encouragement, which from time 



188 

to time I have given, was it not the one only gospel 
which shone forth from my imperfect path on yours ? 
When, for instance, at and after our November com- 
munion, I gathered together the great principles 
which seemed to have guided and cheered my own 
path, in hope that they might guide and cheer 
yours — when I spoke of our communion in the body 
and the blood of the Redeemer, of a grace common 
to every partner in that blessed union, and adequate 
to every temptation — when I appealed to you as 
wise men, wise in the perception of such all- 
sufficient grace, and wiser daily in the growth of 
your Christian character, at every advance of your 
path — was it another gospel? Was it not the one 
gospel, which, receiving, you will go on from strength 
to strength through your remaining pilgrimage, to a 
speedy and eternal glory 1 Surely it is the same 
gospel as that in which your fathers rejoiced — 
which even from Thatcher, downward, through all 
successive pastors, shone upon the path of our late 
departed sister, shining brighter and brighter to the 
perfect day, and connecting my ministry with his. 
I can no more think that our dear sister closed up 
her path under another gospel, than that she came 
up to this new house of God, under the light of 
another sun than that which lighted herself and 
her ancient pastors to this sacred spot ! 

If, then, our gospel be not another, but in sub- 
stance the one gospel — if it be ours in no other sense 
than that we proclaim it as we have ourselves heard, 
and seen, and looked upon, and handled of the word 
of life — in no other sense, but that the light must 



189 

shine as from the path in which God hath led us ; 
then may we renew our assertion on the first Sabbath 
of the new year, as well with reference to our own 
imperfect ministry, as to the whole condition of 
Christian light in which your lot is cast : — You have 
the gospel: the great truths of salvation shine with 
glory on your path; and the hindrance is not the 
thick darkness which surrounds you, hut heedless- 
ness to the light — not ignorance of the word, but 
heedlessness to the word ; and we may renew our 
appeal, with which we would crown this year with 
blessings — Take heed how ye hear ! 

Brethren and sisters of this church — I appeal to 
you amidst many imperfections, and under a deep 
sense of them ; be it your daily desire and prayer 
to profit by the ministry set over you, and by what- 
ever of peculiar light it may cast upon you. Pray 
that it may be more and more faithful — that it may 
more and more shine in the true light — that every 
dark spot may be cleared away from it — and that, 
for whatever time it may be over you, it may shine 
forth in growing glory : but amidst those prayers, 
walk in ivhatever light it does shed forth ; receive 
whatever great and true principles of grace glow 
amidst its imperfections; in its light, growing 
brighter and brighter, in answer to your prayers, 
shine ye forth in the light of Christian truth and 
character, that others beholding your good works 
may be led to glorify God. The apostles' zeal in 
their Master's cause, was not merely in regard to 
those who had not named Christ, but what ardent 
advice did they apply to those who had named him ! 



190 the author's account of himself. 

May I say, amidst my own imperfections — amidst 
honest, and earnest, and daily struggles to overcome 
them — how much I desire, how earnestly I would 
pray, for your growth in grace, until I would almost 
dare to say, in the language of the apostle, "I do 
not cease to pray for you, and to desire that ye 
might be filled with the knowledge of his will, in 
all wisdom and spiritual understanding: that ye 
might walk worthily of the Lord unto all pleasing, 
being fruitful in every good work, and increasing in 
the knowledge of God : strengthened with all might, 
according to his glorious power, unto all patience 
and long-suffering, with joy fulness : giving thanks 
unto the Father, who hath made us meet to be par- 
takers of the inheritance of the saints in light." 

Beloved hearers, each and all, receive ye our 
gospel, if indeed it be the true gospel of Jesus — if 
indeed it do set you as in heavenly places in Christ 
Jesus, in the broad day of gospe] light, amidst the 
present Spirit ! O, shall such a gospel as we desire 
and aim to preach — as we almost dare to say we do 
preach — prove an ineffectual gospel? Shall we pro- 
claim and urge it at your request, and at your 
charges, year after year, and shall it be all in vain 1 
Shall we proclaim a gospel ever at hand, only to 
have you put it far away ? — a Spirit ever ready, only 
to have you never ready ? — a Spirit abroad as the 
light, only that you may choose darkness ? — as the 
life-giving air, only that you may choose death ? — a 
Spirit striving with you on your whole path of life, 
amidst all business and all cares, only to be resisted 
and overcome, instead of being welcomed with the 



THE AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT OF HIMSELF. 191 

prayer, "I will not let thee go unless thou bless 
me?" — a Spirit near enough, powerful enough, will- 
ing enough, earnest enough, to save every member 
of this community, every family, only to be an out- 
cast from almost an entire people 1 O receive the 
effectual grace ! Let the Spirit of glory and of 
grace rest upon you. 

And here let me leave you, where I seemed to 
leave you the last Lord's day — where I seemed to 
feel myself, as amidst the full glory of the Holy 
Spirit shining on our path. A Spirit every where ! 
a Spirit here ! — a Spirit striving with your inmost 
mind ! — a Spirit attending you on all the path of 
life! 

What a conception is this ! What a glory is this ! 
A Spirit with me and about my path ! God's Holy 
Spirit so near to me, so abiding with me, so urgent 
with me, so ready to renew and save me — to trans- 
form me into the image of my God and Saviour ! so 
ready to enable and answer the mysterious prayer, 
" Create within me a clean heart !" O cherish this 
assurance. Keep it in the silence and secrecy of 
your bosom — in your closet — on your bed — amidst 
all the walks of life : the Spirit ever present, 
ever ready ! At night, He will aid you in repent- 
ance over the misspent day, and inspire the prayer, 
" God be merciful to me a sinner." In the morning, 
He will aid your faith, in view of the dangers of the 
day, and inspire the prayer, "Teach me to do thy 
will." He will accompany you in the employments 
of the day, and enable the humble assurance, " I can 
do all things through Christ strengthening me." He 



192 the author's account of himself. 

will make you a "way of escape" with every temp- 
tation, and give you power to " lay aside every 
weight," and " every besetting sin." Cherish from 
this moment a sense of the presence of God's Holy 
Spirit, and it will renew your character: it will 
transform you into the image of God, from glory to 
glory. 

O may the belief in the presence and the power of 
the Holy Ghost, overspread this whole people, settle 
into every mind, direct every plan and thought — 
govern every life ! What, then, though I were to 
cry, as last Lord's day, "AH flesh is as grass?" — 
what though, fixing my eye on each person here, I 
should say, You will die? — what though I could 
hold up the death-roll, and show the date, yet to be 
revealed? — how would each one cry out, Let this 
body die in God's own good time, and life's disci- 
pline be over : aided by that Spirit, I shall live in 
eternal glory ! 



SERMON X. 



FEBRUARY 11, 1838. 



OUR GOSPEL: UNION AND CO-OPERATION IN ONE 
GOSPEL. 



2 Corinthians 4 : 3. 
If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. 

Allow me to say, as last Sabbath, our discourse 
to-day turns upon the two words, our gospel; in 
which expression, adapted to myself personally 
when I last addressed you, I would speak to-day, 
after the manner of the apostle, in your name, and at 
your instance. Brethren, if I have spoken of our 
gospel, as mine singly and individually, be assured 
it is yours also, as much as mine; our mutual 
gospel, if it be indeed the one only and true gospel. 
It is the gospel of our peace ; of the Spirit ever ready 
at all our times and seasons, and on our whole path 
of discipline and temptation. It is the ^ * light of the 
knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
Christ," shining on our path, brighter and brighter, 
17 



194 UNION AND CO-OPERATION IN ONE GOSPEL. 

unto the perfect day. "We all, with open face, 
beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are 
changed into the same image from glory to glory, 
even as by the Spirit of the Lord." 

You cannot, I think, mistake the design of the 
discourse of the last Sabbath, nor of that of the 
Sabbath preceding — no, nor of those which began 
the year, nor of many which closed it — viz., to bring 
to bear upon the minds of this people, the vjhole 
weight of my ministry for years. If each part and 
portion of it be feeble, so much the more should I try 
to unite those feeble portions, if concentrated they 
might bear upon you with any greater power. It is 
not long, since I endeavored to add weight to each 
single discourse, by saying, — Let it not be considered 
the mere task-work of a week, but as the result of 
the experience of years, and as containing within 
itself the seeds of principle and conduct for years 
that are to follow. In this view, I would come 
before you, with the weight of my whole life and 
my whole experience ; as certainly I tried to come to 
you eight years ago, "in the fulness of the blessing 
of the gospel of Christ." But more than this I have 
had in view. I do not stand before you as I then 
stood, a stranger ; but as an intimate acquaintance — 
as one whose principles are known and settled, and 
whose manner of life, for better or worse, is manifest 
before you. I have lived long enough with you, 
either to be put under the greatest of all disadvan- 
tages, that of a ministry with no principles, or no 
consistency with principles ; or, to have gained the 
greatest of all advantages, that of a ministry shining 



UNION AND CO-OPERATION IN ONE GOSPEL. 195 

in its low degree, both in word and deed, '-'in the 
light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the 
face of Jesus Christ." When, then, last Sabbath, I 
traced back my own views to their fountains in my 
own experience, I designed at once to bring upon 
you the whole weight of my own personal and 
individual acquaintance with the gospel of Christ, 
and of my principles and practice in the ministra- 
tions of the gospel for eight years. In so saying, I 
am not so blind as not to see ?nuch, very much, that 
must meet your eye — and more, a thousand fold, 
that you cannot see — of omission and of commission, 
which must mar this ministration : yet, I humbly 
trust, not so but that I may claim, that if at all at 
my first coming among you, then more distinctly and 
more gloriously now, do you sit " in the light of the 
glory of God hi the face of Jesus Christ." 

Such was my design in my last Sabbath's notice 
of our gospel. But I should miss the wisdom of the 
apostle, manifest in all his writings, and especially 
in the epistles to the Corinthians, if, as I have prom- 
ised this morning, I did not endeavor to increase the 
power of our gospel, by speaking of it in your name, 
and at your instance. The ever-present Spirit ! — the 
ever-ready Spirit ! — the Spirit beside the whole path 
of discipline ! — these are the privileges and assur- 
ances of your gospel, as well as mine — of our mutual 
gospel. 

The apostle gives new weight to all his urgency, 
by such union with the Corinthians — by his claim 
upon their welcome to his principles — upon their co- 
operation and aid in publishing the gospel. All the 



196 UNION AND CO-OPERATION IN ONE GOSPEL. 

influence which his gospel had gained with them — 
all that he was entitled to suppose it had gained 
— and even what he had a right to require of them 
as "wise men" — he claims of them as belonging to 
their oion gospel, in those words of mutual accept- 
ance, our gospel. 

It is very plain that the apostle does not speak 
thus, in the name of a church whose welcome and 
co-operation is absolutely perfect: for, in the first 
epistle especially, and in some degree in the second, 
there is occasion for reproof and rebuke, in which 
the apostle is an example of kind fidelity. But the 
most delightful feature of the second epistle, is his 
joy and triumph at the effect of his reproofs and 
rebukes in the first, of which he had waited with 
great anxiety to hear ; and which, on being heard, 
filled him with an ecstasy of joy, as expressed in 
chapters 3, 4, 5, 6; crowned with the plea, "that 
they receive not the grace of God in vain." O, no ! 
the apostle did not say, "our gospel," in any dis- 
tinction and separation of himself from the church 
which he served. Even in the first epistle, and with 
the pen of reproof in his hand, he said, with all 
affection, "Dearly beloved, I speak as to wise men; 
judge ye what I say. The cup of blessing which 
we bless, is it not the communion of the blood of 
Christ? The bread which we break, is it not 
the communion of the body of Christ? For we 
being many, are one bread and one body; for 
we are all partakers of that one bread." But 
when, by the coming of Titus, he had learned the 
effect of his former epistle — when he had been com- 



UNION AND CO-OPERATION IN ONE GOSPEL. 197 

forted in their comfort, and his spirit exceedingly 
refreshed, then what joy with them in the one 
gospel — his gospel, and their gospel — did he ex- 
press ! "Now thanks be unto God, which always 
causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh mani- 
fest the savor of his knowledge by us in every place. 
Ye are our epistle, known and read of all men." 
True, there is a mingled chiding — the wounds of a 
friend — running through this epistle, but the tenor of 
the apostle's urgency is affectionate and confiding; 
and his expression, "our gospel," is not in the tone 
of distrust and separation, but of confidence and 
union; even as he says, " For we preach not our- 
selves, but Christ Jesus the Lord, and ourselves your 
servants for Jesus' s sake." 

My brethren, the ministry is no separate and 
unsocial office. The terms, "our gospel," indeed, 
have special meaning and power, in view of a 
minister's personal experience ; but with what new 
encouragement, with what fresh courage, with what 
increased power, may they be spoken in the name 
and at the instance of the church ! The welcome 
and co-operation of the church ! — the union of the 
church ! — how necessary to give to any ministry 
its best encouragement and success ! 

The union of the church with the ministry, im- 
plied in the terms, "our gospel," requires — 

1. A conformity with all the just and true princi- 
ples urged by that ministry. That those principles 
shine in a peculiar light, instead of being regarded' 
as a disadvantage, is to be considered as the advan- 
tage intended by our Lord in the gift of pastors and 
17* 



198 UNION AND CO-OPERATION IN ONE GOSPEL. 

teachers ; viz., as the very means of making these 
principles more plain and bright — more welcome to 
the eye and the heart — more cheering and guiding to 
the path of every man. The more peculiar the 
light which thus shines upon them, the more readily 
it will become their own ; each believer receiving it 
according to the peculiarities of his own case, again 
to shed it forth in a new glory along his own pecu- 
liar path ; the church and the pastor together, thus 
walking "in the light of the knowledge of the glory 
of God in the face of Jesus Christ." 

2. A conformity to its special advices. The min- 
ister who does not adapt his instructions to the 
condition of the church and of the times, must be as 
truly defective, as truly unlike the apostles, as he 
who does not take his direction from his own expe- 
rience. He may be, in a sense, a preacher of the 
gospel, but he is not an overseer of the flock — does 
not " feed the church of God" — does not shine forth 
on the very path over which he has been set. But 
wherefore should there be an office for special ad- 
vice, except that all reasonable advice should be 
taken? The apostle commends the Corinthians, be- 
cause they received his kind and faithful counsels. 
"Nevertheless, God, that comforteth those that are 
cast down, comforted us by the coming of Titus. 
And not by his coming only, but by the consolation 
wherewith he was comforted in you ; when he told 
us your earnest desire, your mourning, your fervent 
mind towards me, so that I rejoiced the more." 

3. Of course, exemplary and consistent lives, as 
the only actual and practical conformity to a true 



UNION AND CO-OPERATION IN ONE GOSPEL. 199 

ministry. Approval in word, and not in deed — the 
praise of the preacher, on the tongue, and not in the 
conduct, so apt to be awarded — of how little avail ! 
This is the conformity which the ministry needs, 
that it may say with encouragement and success, 
"our gospel;" even as the apostle, associating with 
himself the living epistles known and read of all 
men; or as Peter could say, "Ye are a chosen gen- 
eration, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, that 
ye should show forth the praises of him, who hath 
called you out of darkness into his marvellous 
light." 

It is in this conformity to the principles and 
advices of the true ministry, that it must have its 
highest encouragement. When the church welcome 
their pastor's gospel as their own, along their per- 
sonal and individual path, then how shall both shine 
together "in the light of the knowledge of the glory 
of God, in the face of Jesus Christ!" The Spirit 
ever present ! The Spirit beside all the paths of life ! 
The Spirit making a way of escape with every 
temptation ! O were this gospel welcomed by the 
minister and the church together — welcomed day by 
day, and hour by hour, and moment by moment, at 
each point of trial, then should not the joy and hope 
of the apostle and the Corinthians exceed our own, 
taking the words from his exulting pen: "We all 
with open face beholding as in a glass the glory of 
the Lord, are changed into the same image from 
glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord. 
Therefore, seeing we have received this min- 
istry, as we have received mercy we faint not," 



200 UNION AND CO-OPERATION IN ONE GOSPEL. 

What a hindrance to a true ministry must there be 
when its great principles and its special advices 
alike are repeated, and repeated to ears that will not 
hearken ! — are poured out, and poured out like water 
which cannot be gathered up ! — neglected and re- 
fused by the very persons who should be examples 
of their excellence and power ! Alas, how is the 
gospel of the Spirit hindered, by the church, individ- 
ually and socially, in so far as the Spirit is resisted, 
and grieved, and rejected by those who are assumed 
to be the temples of the Holy Ghost ! The Spirit 
ever present, declared in practice seldom present, 
slow to come, and quick to go ! The Spirit beside 
all the paths of life, declared in practice far from the 
common walks of business and enjoyment ! The 
Spirit at the point of temptation, declared in practice 
out of call amidst the besetting sins of men ! 
How shall the gospel of the Spirit be received by the 
whole world, if it prove but a pretence and delusion 
in those who show forth his praises ! 

Brethren, may I not say, '-our gospel/' in your 
name, and at your instance 1 In my own name and 
yours, with all the humility which belongs to faith, 
and yet with all the assurance of a mind settled and 
fixed in the design and purpose of the Christian 
ministry, as expressed the last Lord's day, may I 
not say with regard to the ever-present Spirit, for 
myself and for you — "When I therefore was thus 
minded, did I use lightness? or the things that I 
purpose, do I purpose according to the flesh, that 
with me there should be yea, yea, and nay, nay? 
But as God is true, our word among you was not yea 



UNION AND CO-OPERATION IN ONE GOSPEL. 201 

and nay. For the Son of God, Jesus Christ, which 
was preached among you by us, was not yea and 
nay, but in him was yea. For all the promises of 
God in him are yea, and in him Amen, unto the 
glory of God by us. Now he which establisheth us 
with you in Christ and hath anointed us is God, 
who hath also sealed us and given the earnest of 
the Spirit in our hearts" 

I close this morning's discourse, as I did that 
of last Sabbath, by three remarks suited to the 
subject. 

1. If there be divisions in the church, the true way 
for a minister to recall its members, "to be perfectly 
joined together in the same mind" — is the re-assertion 
of the great principles of the one only gospel, in that 
depth of conviction, in that earnestness of feeling, and 
even in that peculiarity of manner that belongs to 
his own personal experience. If there be any bond 
of union for the scattered fragments of such a church, 
it will be found in the unshaken constancy of a tried 
pastor, in the glowing love of an unwavering friend, 
and in the steadfast adherence to the foundation on 
which he is personally established, and they are es- 
tablished together. Strange to see ! The way which 
Paul takes to heal the divisions of the Corinthians, 
is a renewed and warm-hearted assertion of his own 
gospel. The way he checks their party expression, 
"I am of Paul, and I am of Apollos," is to appear 
before them in all the form and coloring of Pauline 
experience: "Moreover, brethren, I declare unto 
you the gospel, which I preached unto you, which 
also ye have received, and wherein ye stand; by 



202 UNION AND CO-OPERATION IN ONE GOSPEL. 

which also ye are saved, if ye keep in memory what 
I preached unto you, unless ye have believed in 
vain." " And last of all, he was seen of me also, as 
of one born out of due time. For I am the least 
of the apostles, that am not meet to be called an 
apostle, because I persecuted the church of God. 
But by the grace of God I am what I am." 

2. So long as a church remains essentially on the 
ground of the truth, the minister may urge the 
great principles of the gospel according to his own 
conviction and experience, amidst seeming depart- 
ures from it, and divisions in it, in hope of being 
crowned with success. The apostle begins in this 
hope, and closes with the confident expectation : 
" Grace be unto you, and peace from God our 
Father, and from the Lord Jesus Christ. I thank 
my God always on your behalf, for the grace of 
God, which is given you by Jesus Christ." . . . 
"Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of 
our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the 
same thing, and that there be no divisions among 
you." . . . " Finally, brethren, farewell. Be per- 
fect, be of good comfort, be of one mind, live in 
peace ; and the God of love and peace shall be with 
you." 

3. The union of the church in the great princi- 
ples of the common salvation, as they glow in the 
proper ministry set over them, presents the gospel 
in its highest beauty and glory. If the gospel is 
to win and subdue the world, it must be after 
the manner of its ancient progress, when the first 
"gifts to men" were accepted, according to their 



UNION AND CO-OPERATION IN ONE GOSPEL. 203 

several "diversities;" each in its peculiarity "re- 
ceiving power from on high." It was when that 
union was restored and bright, that the apostle 
cast aside the sorrow of his heart at the reported 
divisions, which he partly believed, and exulted in 
the prospect. u Now thanks be unto God, which 
always causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh 
manifest the savor of his knowledge by us in every 
place." 



SERMON XI. 

FEBRUARY 11, 1838. 
THE PEOPLE DEMANDING A STEADFAST TEACHER. 

2 Corinthians 4 : 3. 
If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost. 

I begin this afternoon with a reference to two 
sermons preached to you more than eight years ago ; 
the one on the first, and the other on the last of the 
four Sabbaths preceding your call to me to become 
your pastor. They were written in the years 1821 
and 1823, and embodied the views which I had 
adopted from years of varied experience, and may 
be considered as containing the principles on which 
I have since endeavored to proceed. The first ser- 
mon referred to was from John 16 : 7, and was the 
first of five sermons from that passage, delivered to 
you in the month of May, 1829. The conclusion of 
that sermon thus expresses my confidence in the 
abiding presence of the Spirit : 



A STEADFAST TEACHER. 205 

" Under a new dispensation, God visits our world 
again, sending his Holy Spirit, not to publish his 
law, not to atone for the violation of his law, but to 
write his law upon the hearts of men — to be their 
God, and to make them his people : and not only 
does He, whom we have rejected as a most right- 
eous lawgiver, and as a most merciful Saviour, visit 
us again, but he comes to extend the blessings of his 
visitation, to bring back the disobedient to their 
allegiance, and to make the world receive the re- 
demption of the Son of God. Ashamed of no degra- 
dation, in extending the blessings of his presence, 
he goes literally into the highways and hedges, and 
compels the needy and the humble to the feast pro- 
vided. In the day of his power he makes them 
willing ; and in the progress of this new visitation 
from on high, the day will come when his power 
will have changed the whole moral aspect of our 
world ; when they shall teach no more every man 
his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, 
Know the Lord : for all shall know him, from the 
least to the greatest. Then, when the Holy Com- 
forter shall have taken up his abode in the hearts of 
men, will the great. Lawgiver be honored in a uni- 
versal obedience ; the great Redeemer in a universal 
acceptance of his atoning sacrifice; and the Holy 
Spirit in his welcomed stay in the bosoms of men ; 
and in that temple, the heart of man, shall fellow- 
ship be enjoyed by the Spirit, with the Father and 
the Son. 

"This is not theory. It is indeed a mystery. 
but facts demonstrate that thus does the Holy Spirit 
18 



206 THE PEOPLE DEMANDING 

visit mankind, and warrant us to expect all that 
prophecy intimates of the glory and blessedness of 
his presence in the time to come. 

"At first, the apostles welcomed to their own 
bosoms his blessed presence. Then three thousand, 
gathered from the streets of sinful Jerusalem and 
from the remotest provinces of the Roman empire, 
became the subjects of his power, and the temples of 
his abode. And have not the tokens of his conde- 
scending presence among men been visible in all 
succeeding ages? Are they not now seen in the 
persons of your pious friends ? Are they not now 
felt in the sacred peace of every pious heart? — 
And in the present rapid march of the kingdom of 
our Lord — in the progressive influence of the gospel 
on the minds of men — who can fail to be convinced 
that these are the last days, in which, in all the ful- 
ness of blessing, the Holy Spirit is poured out upon 
all flesh, and when it cometh to pass, that who- 
soever calleth on the name of the Lord shall be 
saved ? 

u Yes, my brethren, the Holy Spirit now visits 
our world. As truly as Immanuel, God with us, 
ever visited our world; as truly as ever Jesus 
passed along through the towns and villages of 
Judea, so truly is the Holy Spirit now visiting our 
world, our country, our town — nay, this house of 
God! Nor can I more fully believe, that Jesus sat 
in the synagogue of Nazareth, walked in the porch 
of Solomon, stood by the pool of Bethesda, or over 
the grave of Lazarus, than I believe that the Holy 
Comforter is here! that he has entered this town, 
and this house of God ! 



A STEADFAST TEACHER. 207 

" Yes, He is here, waiting to be gracious. He is 
ready to visit every house which will open its doors 
to receive him ; to visit every heart which is willing 
to be the subject of his power. He knocks at every 
heart. He offers himself as the inmate of every 
bosom. And in the name of Him, through whom 
this blessing descends to mankind, I publish to you 
these glad tidings, and say, as he said to his disci- 
ples, ' Ask, and ye shall receive, that your jo}?- may 
be full.' " 

The other sermon referred to, was delivered on 
the fourth Sabbath of May, 1829, on the morning of 
my first administration to you of the Lord's Supper : 
opening our Lord's command, Matthew 5 : 48 — 
" Be ye therefore perfect, as your Father who is in 
heaven is perfect." If the preceding discourse may 
be taken as the announcement of the doctrine of the 
abiding Spirit, this, less directly indeed, but implic- 
itly, presents the opportunity of a living and groioing 
piety along the whole path of life ; making earth the 
"way to heaven," on which the sinner is called to 
enter, and which the saint is called to pass, aided 
by that abiding Spirit, to eternal glory. The follow- 
ing passages will show on what principles, in this 
matter, I was prepared to proceed. 

"God has given us no command, beyond the 
assisted capacities of our nature. Perfect holiness 
may never be attained by sinful man in the flesh ; 
but none the less is it perfectly attainable, and to be 
eventually attained, by every one who strives after 
it. Those who aim after it, will eventually reach it. 
Every effort will make the labor less. Every reach- 



208 THE PEOPLE DEMANDING 

ing forward will bring them nearer to it. The toil 
will always be repaid in increasing holiness and 
comfort ; and an hour, a day, a month, a year, may 
end the strife, and present the soul pure and spot- 
less. 

"We speak not now of the attained perfection of 
men in this life, but of the perfection which men 
now living may struggle successfully to attain. We 
look not upon human life as a separate career, but 
upon human existence as a whole. This mortal 
life is only a part of that whole existence upon which 
we are entered. It is but a minute of that endless 
duration in which we have commenced to live. A 
narrow stream separates you from the land where 
perfection is. Your path is all the while along its 
banks. Whenever your labor is complete: when 
your prayer for perfection calls for an answer, you 
will find that you have attained it, in that land where 
perfection is, and you will be 'perfect as your 
Father who is in heaven is perfect.' It cannot be 
long before your struggle is victorious; and a mo- 
ment, a day, a week, a year, may give you an early 
and a glorious victory." 

Immediately after the delivery of this discourse, 
I did, at your request, and for the first time, seal the 
doctrines of it, and those which preceded it, as the 
doctrines of my gospel, in the breaking the bread 
and pouring the wine of the Lord's Supper; and 
you sealed them as the doctrines of your gospel, in 
taking those sacred emblems from my hands. I 
declared, over the broken body and flowing blood of 
my Saviour, my faith in the gift of his Spirit to 



A STEADFAST TEACHER. 209 

rebellious man, and in his leading grace, making all 
the path of life a path towards perfection — the aim, 
and the object, and the obligation of every disciple ; 
and you declared your faith, in the fervor of a first 
affection, in receiving that holy sacrament. On the 
very next day, in connection with this parish, you 
renewed your call to me to be your pastor, and gave 
me the right to proceed — nay, made it my duty to 
yourselves to proceed on these great principles — as 
your gospel — as our mutual gospel. 

Yes, brethren, and you have never allowed me to 
lose the impression of that bounden duty ; you have 
never allowed me to sleep in forgetfulness, or to 
grow torpid in neglect. If / had wished to forget 
"our gospel" — if / had wished to efface that im- 
pression, which it has been my desire to cherish — 
you did not allow it, but in the most significant 
manner renewed it — deepened it in my whole soul. 
If / would have forgotten the truth of the ever- 
present Spirit, and of his leading grace, offered and 
urged on all the paths of life, you did not allow it. 
If i" would have ceased to say, it is my gospel, you 
were ever holding up the symbols, It is ours ! As I 
have come, for near a hundred times, on the first 
Sabbaths of alternate months, what have I seen, but 
the symbols of my crucified Redeemer — of my risen 
Redeemer — of my ascended Redeemer — dispensing 
his gifts to man, breathing upon us as of old, the 
Holy Ghost ! — and as often have I been required to 
ask you to receive those symbols, as your acknowl- 
edgment of that bountiful Redeemer, and of the gift 
of his Spirit on all your path. It is your gospel. 
18* 



210 THE PEOPLE DEMANDING 

' ' I speak as unto wise men ; judge ye what I say. 
The cup of blessing which we bless, is it not the 
communion of the blood of Christ? The bread 
which we break, is it not the communion of the 
body of Christ V 1 And I claim of you to unite with 
me, with all fidelity, with all prayer, with all love, 
in accepting and in extending our gospel. So do 
you stand under the most sacred pledges to me, as 
your pastor; and so do you stand pledged to one 
another, as in your sacred covenant. 

Brethren, as I look back to the time when you 
received first our gospel as yours, and when you 
required me to publish it as our mutual gospel: I 
can say, and do say, with thanksgiving — not with- 
out a deep sense of sins, which God has searched out 
and shown me — " Having obtained help of God, I 
continue unto this day, witnessing both to small and 
great, saying none other things" than those pledged at 
our first LoroVs Supper. And O, let me claim, by all 
the expectation of a Christian pastor — Receive me as 
you received me, your servant for Jesus' s sake. 
Discard me, when I prove unfaithful to the truths 
on which we met as pastor and church — when I 
prove unfaithful to the duties which belong to me 
as an overseer of Christ's flock — when I dishonor 
my doctrines and my professions by unworthy con- 
duct. Discard me the very moment you cannot 
stand by me without denying those great truths — 
without failing, yourselves, in the duties of members 
of Christ's flock — without approving the wickedness 
of an hypocritical life. Discard me, if you find me 
betraying my Master to his enemies. But if, know- 



A STEADFAST TEACHER. 211 

ing my manner of life for eight years, you see cause 
to believe that I came among you with honesty and 
sincerity, as a believer and minister of your Re- 
deemer and mine; if, year after year, and month 
after month, and day after day, I have seemed to 
bear an honest witness to the gospel, as the source 
of my own hope and yours — as the only source of 
hope to sinful man ; if you have seen me evidently 
looking unto Jesus as the author and finisher of my 
own faith and yours, and earnestly desiring with 
you thus to lay aside every weight, and the sin that 
doth so easily beset us ; if you have found me, on the 
Sabbath, and in meetings throughout your bounds, 
and beside every man's path in my daily walks, 
recommending and urging the ever-present Spirit — 
the Spirit on man's whole path of life — your gospel 
and mine ; if you have seen me thus, though it be in 
weakness, and fear, and much trembling, then be- 
ware — lest in discarding my gospel, you discard your 
own — lest in discarding me 1 you discard yourselves — 
lest in withdrawing the people from my gospel, you 
withdraw them from your own, and evil to your- 
selves and others, be the issue of your hasty and 
hurried good intentions ; then beware lest, in your 
zeal for the moment, you undo and prevent the work 
of years ; lest you check the stream of good, which 
has flown down from your fathers, in its progress to 
your children and your children's children; and 
make your gospel a by-word and a scorn, when it 
should have shone among men in the light of the 
knowledge of the glory of God, in the face of Jesus 
Christ. 



212 THE PEOPLE DEMANDING 

I will not close, without extending the claim of 
this discourse beyond the bounds of the church — 
without saying to all who hear me, our gospel is 
yours ; and I claim of you to receive it as your own, 
as indeed from the first, even until now, you have 
claimed it of me. 

Think, for a moment, of the claim I have upon 
you to obey the commands and receive the blessing 
of our gospel, because it is your own. You called 
me to no mere form of office, but to the care of your 
souls. I accepted my office as no mere sinecure; 
and I have endeavored to be faithful, diligent, and 
constant, in urging you to receive God's Spirit. For 
many months I have been urging you, with intense 
desire, and with strong hopes of your acceptance of 
your own gospel. I began this year with beseeching 
you, "Take heed how ye hear." I closed the for- 
mer with earnest warnings against an ineffectual 
gospel. I come now with no new gospel, but in all 
the glory and urgency of the old — ours and yours ; 
with no new plan, but the old, which you entrusted 
to my hands ; with no new desire and intention in 
your behalf, but the old, grown stronger amidst 
prayers for you. Having experienced, as I trust, 
God's blessing on my }routh, and on my mature 
life, and at the approach of old age, I come with 
desires and prayers, that have grown with my life, 
that I may be blessed daily in this blessed gospel ; 
and for you, with the full-grown affection of years. 
In that love, let me urge you once more — Receive 
your gospel — the gospel for whose sake only I am 
your minister — the Spirit ever ready — the Spirit 



A STEADFAST TEACHER. 213 

beside every path of life — the Spirit now ready to 
bless you for time and eternity ! O accept your 
gospel — obey your gospel — cherish your gospel in 
your bosom — live on it the life that you live in the 
flesh — bear it with you in your walks of business — 
write it on the door-posts of your houses, on your 
foreheads, on the palms of your hands. Accept it 
now, but not merely for now ; accept it to-day, but 
not merely for to-day ; accept it this month, but not 
merely for this month : accept it for your whole life 
— for your hour of temptation and trial — for the 
season of prosperity — for every season, and for all 
seasons — for time, that it may be for eternity ! 

Accept it as a people. Think not to be satisfied 
though tens and twenties were to become earnest, 
and consistent, and settled disciples, if you were left ; 
if tens and twenties were fit to live and fit to die, if 
you were not. Think not that you receive your 
own gospel, unless you each become a willing, de- 
voted, and persevering disciple ; unless your feet 
be set in the way of peace, and your steps be 
kept steadfast in the path of obedience to the Saviour 
— the path of the just, shining brighter and brighter 
to the perfect day ! 

It was in the acknowledgment of this gospel — the 
gospel of to-day — the gospel of all preceding days — 
the gospel which will remain upon you for your 
acceptance or refusal, for your salvation or for your 
condemnation hereafter — that you called me to this 
sacred office ; and it has been with sincere, constant, 
earnest, and prayerful, though imperfect diligence, 
that I have, for more than eight years, endeavored 



214 THE PEOPLE DEMANDING 

to fulfil the trust; that I have, for months past, 
endeavored to bring to a result the labor of years ; 
until I have seemed, as in vision, to see you coming 
to the acceptance of the greatest of blessings. It has 
been your gospel as well as mine, that you called 
me to proclaim and to urge without ceasing upon 
you — your gospel, that I have not allowed myself, 
amidst all imperfections — may I say, which I trust 
the blessed Saviour has not allowed me to forget — 
nay, which yourselves have forced ever on my mem- 
ory and on my heart. 

Yes, beloved hearers: if i" could have lost the 
impression of that bounden duty, which your call 
imposed upon me, you have never suffered me to 
sleep in forgetfulness — to grow torpid in months and 
years of neglect and indifference, in the vain dream 
that your opportunity and my duty were at pause, 
or that the Saviour's promise were withdrawn, and 
the Holy Spirit away from the softest call, the faint- 
est breath of prayer, or even failing his strivings in 
your bosoms. If / had wished to efface the im- 
pression of a present opportunity — of a present 
Spirit ; if / had wished for months and years of neg- 
lect, you have not allowed me, but have held me fast 
to my duty, to my privilege, to my gospel and to 
yours. 

Opportunity and duty at pause ! The Saviour's 
promise, u Lo I am with you," interrupted! The 
Holy Spirit no longer near, as a parent's gift to his 
beseeching child ! The strivings ceased, which, 
even after the flood was threatened, were left upon 
the ancient world still one hundred and twenty 



A STEADFAST TEACHER. 215 

years ! If I would have thought so — if the Master 
whom I have tried to serve, had left me thus to 
sleep and to dream — you did not allow it ; you came 
in, were it on my approaching drowsiness and 
torpor, to call me to my senses and my duty — to my 
gospel, and to yours. 

Once every seven days, the church-bell, sounding 
in my ears as it began this morning when I was 
putting these lines on paper, has come upon me like 
the message of Cornelius to Peter, from hundreds, 
calling me, even if I were entranced, to come to 
them and publish the accepted time and the day of 
salvation; may I say, often rinding me in some 
humble communion with a Spirit which seemed to 
say, " What God hath cleansed, that call not thou 
common" — where and when God hath promised his 
gracious presence, believe him and receive him there, 
nothing doubting ! Once every seven days, at that 
delightful call, I have met you, flocking by hundreds 
to this house of prayer, demanding for yourselves 
the form — " Create within me a clean heart, and 
renew within me a right spirit;" and seeming to 
say — "Now therefore are we all here present before 
God, to hear all things that are commanded thee of 
God;" expecting me to say, in the spirit and the 
wisdom of Peter, "Of a truth I perceive that God is 
no respecter of times and seasons, but here, now, 
waiteth to be gracious, and to pour down on your 
willing or refusing hearts his Holy Spirit." You 
have called me, though it were from my sleep and 
from my dreams, every successive Sabbath, to renew 
your gospel and mine — to cry, " Ho, every one that 



216 THE PEOPLE DEMANDING 

thirsteth, come ye to the waters;" "Seek ye the 
Lord while he may be found, call ye upon him 
while he is near;" "Thus saith the Lord, even 
unto the sons of the stranger, that join themselves to 
the Lord to serve him, and to love the name of the 
Lord, to be his servants, every one that keepeth his 
Sabbath from polluting it, and taketh hold of my 
covenant; even them will I bring to my holy 
mountain, and make them joyful in my house of 
prayer." 

Nor merely every seven days. What place of 
forgetfulness of the present Spirit — of the day of 
salvation — of the gospel to be accepted or refused — 
have you left me? — has God's providence on your 
path of life left me ? If I had forgotten it, and found 
no Saviour on my daily path — no Spirit, striving and 
aiding me in all my daily course, I had been ill 
qualified to meet my duty on your path; to meet 
you in the Spirit's strife with your own hearts, 
amidst your joys, and sorrows, and hopes, and fears ; 
the needs of the present and the anxieties of the 
future life; on your sick beds; in your houses of 
mourning. What tried and tempted heart have I 
had to tell, Not yet is there a way of escape, that ye 
may be able to bear it? What sick and dying 
person have I had to meet with the dark and gloomy 
gospel, Not yet the portents are visible of the un- 
abiding Spirit — not yet is the day of visitation? 
Nay, the very temptation and trial which befell you, 
was your call, that I should point to Him who makes 
the way of escape ; the sickness and the dying was 
your call for the "gospel with the Holy Ghost sent 



A STEADFAST TEACHER. 217 

down from heaven;" meeting the cry, "All flesh is 
grass, and all the goodliness thereof is as the flower 
of the field." 

Yes, you have compelled me these eight years, to 
know no interval, to indulge no dream, which should 
hinder your opportunity, or excuse your neglect : and 
now, will you refuse my plea, because it must needs 
be old — because it is the same which you have been 
for years requiring from me ? Will you refuse the 
grace, because I have endeavored to urge it, steady 
as the church-bell, by which you have called me to 
my duty — constant as the weakness, and neediness, 
and frailty, and decay, and anxieties of yourselves — 
of a people which is but as grass ? — because I assert 
the opportunity now, and pledge myself, in the 
strength of my Saviour, to assert it for so many 
years, and months, and days, as God's sparing 
mercy and your kindness may allow 1 



19 



SERMON XII. 



SEPTEMBER 9, 1838. 



THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 



2 Corinthians 4 : 3, 4. 

If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost : in whom 
the god of this world hath blinded the minds of them that be- 
lieve not, lest the light of the glorious gospel of Christ should 
shine upon them. 

It was my first thought, as I closed the services 
of the last Lord's day, to address you next, and 
anew, on the two aspects of the temple ; now that the 
Lord has come to it, even the Messenger of the 
covenant, rising over all nations, as "the Sun of 
righteousness with healing in his wings," and yet 
" burning as an oven, the proud and all that do 
wickedly," leaving "neither root nor branch." But 
on reflection, I prefer to repeat the discourses of 
February 9 and 16, from the words now read, for 
your warning and encouragement, in connection 
with my discourses on public worship ; I trust the 
more likely to be heard with attention and impres- 



THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 219 

sion, because the interval since they were delivered 
is so brief. 

The temple, then, crowned as it is with the full 
glory of the Sun of righteousness — the light of the 
glorious gospel of Jesus Christ, glowing through the 
ordinances of divine service — is not a necessary 
salvation. Opportunity is not absolute endowment. 
Privilege is not a certain possession. Or, referring 
to former discourses, a method of piety is not piety ; 
a way of approach is not of itself an actual approach 
to God ; a mould for the heart and character is not 
the transformation for which it provides. The mid- 
dle wall of partition broken down — the house of 
prayer opened for all people — do not secure a uni- 
versal entrance to the holy place — do not force a 
fellowship with the saints and the household of God. 
The gospel brings no absolute salvation. You may 
be in darkness amidst its brightest light : you may 
be lost amidst its glory of salvation. 

Let us, then, consider the condition of the saved 
and the lost, and their progress to their different end, 
amidst " the light of the glory of God, in the face of 
Jesus Christ ;" and first, of the lost. 

I. The condition of the lost. 

There is but one way for finite minds to under- 
stand the miserable condition of the lost, viz., to try 
the experiment — to be lost. Then would knowledge 
grow to all eternity, and yet never be complete. 
May grace prevent in us such knowledge, and make 
us for ever ignorant of the terrible reality ! 

But yet again : there are grounds of forethought 
and anticipation. The declarations of Scripture, 



220 THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 

and our own experience of the nature and tendencies 
of sin, furnish all that is needful for our forewarn- 
ing — all that is needful to urge us forward in the 
way of salvation. No conception can reach the 
terrible reality of eternal ruin. That ruin must be 
infinitely beyond all finite thought; yet may our 
faint and feeble apprehension be sufficient for our 
salvation. We cannot even convey to others the 
faint and feeble conceptions of our own minds. No 
language can tell our own fearful looking for of 
eternal judgment : there is a bitterness which can- 
not be told. I cannot put in words the concep- 
tions of my own mind ; and yet the faint and feeble 
attempt may be enough to forewarn you — to make 
you flee for refuge to the hope set before you — to 
make you earnestly walk in the light of the glorious 
gospel of Jesus Christ — to make you inmates of the 
house of prayer, amidst the healing light of the Sun 
of righteousness. Should it be your unhappy case 
to miss your bright, but brief, opportunity — bright, 
but brief — to blind your mind against the light of 
the glorious gospel of Christ, against the manifesta- 
tion of the truth in your own conscience, you will 
be lost : in which condition we may regard the 
following particulars : 

1. The lost are without the essential principle 
of well-being within themselves — without Christ's 
image formed in them — unchanged "from glory to 
glory, as by the Spirit of the Lord." He was holy, 
harmless, undefiled, and separate from sinners. In 
his tried and tempted intercourse with men, he was 
meek, and lowly, and patient, and forgiving, and 



THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 221 

full of the tenderest love. And now, "made higher 
than the heavens," he is occupied in " giving gifts 
to men, even to the rebellious, that the Lord God 
might dwell among men." The salvation which he 
proffers — the riches of the glory of the mystery 
among the Gentiles — is Christ in them the hope of 
glory; is the being changed into his image from 
glory to glory ; is the fruit of the Spirit, love, joy, 
peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, 
meekness, temperance. 

Without Christ's image formed in you ! Without 
the essential principles of well-being in your own 
bosoms ! Without the elements of peace within, 
this world is often a wilderness, even amidst the 
greatest prosperity — amidst all outward sources of 
enjoyment ; and when suffering and sorrow come in, 
and hope fails, then how wretched becomes the 
condition of the present life ! Who can describe the 
misery of one hour without peace within, and with 
earthly pain, and grief, and despair? Without 
Christ's image, how poorly you are prepared for this 
life's desolate prosperity ! — for its portionless, com- 
fortless, hopeless adversity, even for a single hour ! 
What if they were days, and weeks, and months, 
and years, without enjoyment — with suffering, and 
deep and growing despair ! — who would wish to 
live? How many have wished to die, from the 
mere misery of a mind not formed in the image of 
Christ ! 

But if men are often miserable here, because their 
minds have not found peace, by Christ formed in 
them; if there are hours and days of gloom and 
19* 



222 THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 

despair, that make this life a burden ; what shall we 
say of the condition of the soul after death, if it be 
considered only in this one respect — ivithout the 
image of Christ — without the love, and joy, and 
peace which belong to that character? You may 
imagine the soul where you will — you may suppose 
that the angels have carried it to Abraham's bosom, 
and given it a place among that great multitude 
which no man can number, of all nations, and kin- 
dreds, and tongues, standing before the throne, and 
before the Lamb, clothed with white robes and 
palms in their hands, crying with a loud voice, and 
saying, Salvation to our God, which sitteth on the 
throne, and to the Lamb ; where all the angels stand 
round about the throne, and about the elders, and 
the four beasts, falling before the throne and wor- 
shipping God, saying, Amen — blessing, and glory, 
and wisdom, and thanksgiving, and honor, and 
power, and might, be unto our God, for ever and 
ever. . . . Can you think of a soul more truly out of 
its place? Was ever spot, or condition, where a 
sinner, icithont Christ's image, might more truly be 
said to be lost? O, if like that blessed company, it 
might be said of you, to the inquiring angel, These 
are they who have come out of great tribulations, 
and have washed their robes white in the blood of the 
Lamb; then, indeed, might heaven be to you a 
place of peace and joy. But if not, will you not 
find yourself lost, even if you could stand before the 
throne and before the Lamb, and amidst the white- 
robed saints, and amidst the angels, without a heart 
to join their worship, and their holy service, and 



THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 223 

their drinking from the living fountains of waters ? 
Amidst those happy spirits, you would be unhappy ! 
All tears would not be wiped away from your eyes. 

1 put it to yourself — you who are without 

Christ's image — Are you now fitted for such a 
'heaven ? Would you not be lost in such a place, in 
such company, in such employments, in such a 
presence, before the throne of God and of the Lamb 1 
There is a fitness in things. There are things so 
unfitted to each other, that nothing can make them 
match. A fish cannot live in the air, nor a bird in 
the water. And will not the man without Christ's 
image be so unfit for heaven, that his whole soul 
would be unhappy ? Say not, then, while you re- 
fuse the transforming light of the gospel of Christ, 
" God is just, and he will not banish from heaven so 
small a sinner as I am." There is a fitness in 
things. If justice were to give your unrenewed soul 
a place in heaven, you would be miserable amidst 
its unfitting glory — in tears, amidst the joyful 
millions — in despair, at the thought of so wretched 
an eternity! Say not, "God is merciful, and a 
father cannot banish his beloved child from his pres- 
ence and blessing!" There is a fitness in things. 
What if God should bring you to himself — to his 
brightness of eternal glory — and you were to stand 
exposed in his pure presence for ever? Your God 
would be a consuming fire — that healing light would 
burn you as an oven ! Say not, "I do not see my- 
self worse than others." There is a fitness in things. 
What would comparison with others avail you, if 
you were wafted to the company of just men made 



224 THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 

perfect, if y ou were not perfect? — to the Saviour's 
presence, if you were not like him ? — to heaven, if 
you were not fitted for it? Say not, "I trust I shall 
get to heaven when I die." There is a fitness in 
things. The kingdom of heaven is not " within 
you," while you live; how can you he fitted for it 
when you are dead? Nay, could you reach the 
highest mansions of the "blessed, how should you be 
blessed, without their blessedness begun? Could 
you come nearest to St. Paul, and to St. John, who 
leaned on his Master's breast; could you have leave 
to go with them on those errands of love, for which 
they are fitted by their likeness to their Lord, and 
shine next to those brightest stars ; — alas, for you ! 
you are not Paul-like, or John-like, that you should 
be a partner in their joys ! 

What vain expectations are these ! Without the 
likeness of Christ, to see him as he is ! Without his 
image formed in you, to rejoice in his worship and 
service ! Without the essential principles of blessed- 
ness, to be for ever blessed ! Beside the throne of 
God and the Lamb — amidst those who "have 
washed their robes and made them white in the 
blood of the Lamb" — who have "purified them- 
selves even as he is pure" — and yet in all your 
impurity ! Where "nothing entereth that defileth," 
and yet in all your defilement ! Expect to enter 
heaven on the score of justice or of mercy : but on 
what score do you expect to be happy in a place, 
and company, and glory, for which you are utterly 
unfit? Suppose the false, true. Say, there will be 
no difference made hereafter between the righteous 



THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 225 

and the wicked — they will inherit the same glory — 
be all gathered around the same throne — and all 
have part in the same song of praise to God and the 
Lamb ; — alas ! you are making a difference, which 
place and privilege cannot alter ; you are making a 
gulf between yourself and blessedness, which you 
can never pass. There is a fitness in things. To 
all eternity, the unholy must remain unblessed. 
Should death this moment meet you as you are, 
refusing the light and image of the Saviour, would 
you not refuse the glory, if your eye were to open 
on him — to behold him as he is — and must not you 
receive a miserable doom ? 

There is a fitness in things. If you expect or 
intend, in a year or two, or ten, or twenty, or fifty, 
to enter heaven by the gate of death, then "Be 
diligent to be found of him in peace, without spot 
and blameless.'' 

2. The lost will enter eternity, not only without 
Christ's image formed in them, but with their own 
sinful character finished and complete. If you are 
lost, the god of this world will have formed his 
image in your heart — you will have grown into the 
likeness of Satan — sin will have become finished, 
bringing forth death. The sweet savor of the gos- 
pel will have proved a savor of death unto death. 
The healing and transforming light will have kin- 
dled to a fire that will burn as an oven ! 

I take it for granted that every man knows the 
beginnings of sin — the beginnings of pride, and 
self-confidence, and self-will, and self-seeking — of 
disobedience, and anger, and wrath, and malice, 



226 THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 

and uncharitableness — and that he knows the mis- 
ery of disappointed pride, of mortified self-confidence, 
of an unsubmissive and rebellious spirit, and of all 
evil passions. Thanks be to God, that the condi- 
tion of this life puts sin in check, and prevents the 
full and free exercise of growing sin, and ever urges 
to the transforming gospel. Yet, under the checks 
of life, before sin is finished, who does not know the 
misery of evil passions, ever in proportion as they 
are allowed to grow and prevail? Who does not 
know that misery, increased by remorse, when sin 
has failed to bestow the rewards anticipated in the 
hour of temptation? Alas! the misery of one hour 
of unrestrained and ungoverned evil passions ! — of 
the bitterness of mortified and disappointed pride ! — 
of the bitterness of false and deceiving expectation, 
crying, " Give, give," and at the same moment, Who 
will show us any good ! — of one hour of hatred and 
malice to man ! — of a spirit unresigned to God ! — of 
bitter and yet useless rebellion against him ! — of un- 
availing remorse ! 

My hearers, I take it for granted, that even in 
this early stage of your history, you know some- 
thing of the bitterness I speak of, and are thus 
prepared for some faint conception of the bitterness, 
dreadful and eternal, to which your mind will grow, 
if the image of Christ is not formed in you — if the 
image of the god of this world should be fully 
formed in you. Alas, the misery of a soul formed 
complete in every evil passion, of which we have 
already had experience! — full-grown in all the 
tempers of this infant sinfulness ! — hardened and 



THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 227 

fixed unalterably in the misery of full-grown, 
and yet still-growing, evil passions ! — having within 
itself the essential principles of extreme and end- 
less misery ! The infant sinfulness might have 
been slain in its infancy by the sword of God's 
Spirit — the quick and powerful word. The mind of 
sin might have been displaced by the new image of 
Jesus, changing in his light from glory to glory. 
But it was not so. Sin has but increased to more 
sin ; evil passions have but grown into more evil 
passions ; and the changeable spirit has but settled 
down into the spirit unchangeable — and it has de- 
parted. If you will (I will allow again the false 
supposition), it has gone to heaven — has taken its 
place with the spirits of just men made perfect, and 
with holy angels, and in the full blaze of the light 
of the throne of God and of the Lamb ! — a soul 
blinded by the god of this world — in the full-grown 
image of Satan — in the full growth of the evil pas- 
sions we have all felt — in heaven ! ! ! I know, and 
shall say presently, it cannot be ; yet suppose, for a 
deeper impression of self-gotten and unavoidable 
misery, suppose it were. Suppose, at the very mo- 
ment when every evil passion has ripened in the 
soul, when sin is finished and bringeth forth death, 
then, the soul admitted to the mansions of the 
blessed — I dare to say that there the curse would be 
found — that within, there would be a worm that 
dieth not. 

I deny not punishment; but punishment is not 
the leading idea in the misery of sinners. Into the 
place of that punishment, they bear with them the 



228 THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 

worm that dieth not — the sin which they have let to 
grow until it is finished. Their evil passions and 
their remorse will not die. The lost will find their 
misery essentially their own — essentially from with- 
in — essentially from the power of finished and full- 
grown sin. The same sinful passions which have 
made their most wretched moments or hours on 
earth, will make the lost inwardly wretched for 
ever. If there should be added no other causes of 
misery, they must be fully and inconceivably 
wretched for ever. '-Their worm dieth not.'' 
Wicked minds will prey inwardly on themselves 
for ever. 

But there is another natural and necessary cause. 
Sin grows in the bosom of the lost, under the influ- 
ence of the god of this world, and in connection 
with the thousands deluded by his temptations: 
and another cause of misery is its social condition. 
amidst fallen angels and lost men. A bad neighbor- 
hood makes a bad man worse — more unhappy within 
himself, and still more unhappy from the wickedness 
which prevails around him. A society formed of men 
who have become full-grown in sin — who have em- 
ployed the discipline of life — the lights of salvation — 
only in promoting the growth and fixing the substance 
of evil passions ! What a state of misery is this ! 
If you add to this conception, the company of the 
devil and his angels — spirits doubly lost in sinful 
passions — the conception is utterly overcoming ! — 
Alas ! what think you will be the condition of that 
terrible society, where Satan shall rage — not now 
abroad, seeking whom he may devour — but at home, 



THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 229 

seeking whom of the wretched, he can make more 
wretched; where innumerable wicked angels and 
wicked men shall find their only employment in 
making their companions more wretched ; where the 
description of the misery of each is, "their worm 
dieth not," and of all, " their fire is not quenched;" 
where each soul burns with an inward fire, more 
intense, because it receives and communicates of the 
furnace heat in which all glow together 1 

I confess that if this be all that is meant by ever- 
lasting fire ; if fire be employed only to express the 
social misery of the lost — the misery of each made 
intense by the misery and the wickedness of all; 
even then is it terrible above all conception. O, to 
be partners in finished sin ! — to be brothers in a 
brother-hating family ! — to be neighbors in a neigh- 
bor-hating neighborhood ! — to be joined in a society 
with the cement of malice and envy ! — to be lighted 
up, as a social body, with the fire of universal 
discord ! — to be fixed eternally in the focus of ever- 
lasting hatred ! — what furnace heat can be imagined 
to be compared to this? What idea of eternal 
misery can exceed this, towards which, every day, 
Satan is leading on the lost ? 

The views already given are drawn from every 
man's own experience — from mine — from yours. 
Every man knows, in degree, the misery to which 
mere destitution of Christ's image often leaves him 
in this world; and also the deeper misery from the 
exercise and consequences of allowed and indulged 
sin. So well is this known, as to become the chief 
argument, in many minds, for the conclusion, that 
20 



230 THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 

there icill be no punishment hereafter. Little do they 
consider, how terrible the argument is, from this, 
that there will be suffering hereafter ! Is sin, before 
it is finished — in a life where it has not free scope — 
where it is every where restrained from venting 
itself — every where hindered in its social influence 
and reaction — found, in every man's experience, to 
bring its own punishment ? Who, then, is willing to 
learn, by experience, what the death is, which, 
when it is finished, it must bring forth ? One hour 
of suffering, because you have not Christ's image 
formed in you — one hour of suffering from the exer- 
cise or the consequences of evil passions — nay, one 
moment — has in it bitterness enough to give assur- 
ance and forewarning of a worm that dieth not, and 
a fire that shall never be quenched. Granted, if 
you will, that God is too merciful to punish those 
who refuse to be changed into Christ's image — who 
blind their eyes, under the influence of Satan's 
temptations, until sin becomes finished — how shall 
they be blessed, who have ripened in their own 
bosom, and in their chosen society, the chief misery 
of their earthly condition 1 

3. The lost will enter eternity under the doom of 
divine justice, finally and fully executed at the 
judgment day. 

Our suppositions are impossible. Those who are 
formed in the Saviour's image shall find their fitting 
place — shall join the spirits of the just made perfect, 
and serve and praise God and the Lamb in heaven 
for ever. Those who are without Christ's image, 
who are full-grown in sin, will find, too, their fitting 



THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 231 

place. Not within, but without the gates of the 
heavenly city, " are dogs, and sorcerers, and whore- 
mongers, and murderers, and idolaters, and whatso- 
ever worketh abomination and maketh a lie." 

The Scriptures do not represent the lost condition 
of man, merely as the natural consequence of sin ; 
but forewarn punishment, also, as the infliction of 
eternal justice. Nevertheless, the consequences of 
sin are set forth so plainly and prominently, as to 
assure us, that they are at once the essence and the 
measure of punishment ; i. e., the all-seeing and 
righteous Judge regulates, governs, and even antici- 
pates self-punishment, that he may arrest and pre- 
vent the extension of the ruin. He but dooms the 
sinner to be gnawed by his own worm ; to be burned 
in his own widening and increasing fire. If sin 
were left to have free scope, it would at length 
become finished sin hi each sinner, and throughout 
the whole society of sinners. All that divine justice 
need do, is to separate the wicked from the righteous ; 
to leave them to their own hearts' lusts, and to be 
filled with their own devices — to their own full- 
grown sin — to their own society of full-grown sin- 
ners — to their own never-dying worm — to their own 
never-quenched fires ! The gulf between the right- 
eous and the wicked keeps bach, but does not make, 
the waves and billows of the ever-raging flames. 
Nevertheless, self-wrought as is the misery of the 
wicked, it is a punishment — a reward — chiefly so to 
be regarded, from the fixed connection of eternal 
sufferings with the sins of time. 



232 THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 

No doubt sin will for ever retain its character and 
tendency, and at whatever period of duration, will 
be a living death — a self-inflicting torture, even 
though all its early history were forgotten: but 
punishment, now and for ever, regards it in its 
seminal character, as an original source ; and what- 
ever may be its future issues, they are to be traced 
backward to the spring-heads of earth and time. 
Punishment is not to be regarded merely as an 
amount and intensity of suffering, proportionate to 
guilt ; but as proceeding perceptibly from the minute 
and yet never-failing fountains of this present life : 
a terrible answer to the cavil, that eternal punish- 
ment cannot be due for the sins of time. For ever 
and for ever, the lost will suffer the consequences of 
each moment's sinful choice, and thought, and deed, 
in this state of trial; be for ever gnawed by the 
worm which here they cherished — for ever burned 
by the fire which here they kindled and extended. 
Earth's moments of sin will be eternally remembered ! 
Sin will sting the soul for ever ! Punishment will 
be recognized, in all its severity and duration, as a 
necessary doom. Even so will justice have scope 
upon those who would not know the day of their 
visitation, when the things of their peace are for 
ever hidden from their eyes. " Be not deceived. 
God is not mocked ; for whatsoever a man soweth. 
that shall he also reap." 

II. It remains that we consider the progress to 
ruin, amidst the light of the glorious gospel of 
Christ, at the open temple, glowing with the healing 
beams of the Sun of righteousness. 



THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 233 

The lost, then, proceed to their ruin amidst the 
light — under the provision and offer of a free and 
full forgiveness — of a free and full assistance. Not 
more gloriously shone the sun on your path, lighting 
you to God ; s house, than the light of the gospel 
shines in it and around it ; wanting nothing but the 
lifted eye, the open face, that you may behold as in 
a glass the glory of the Lord, and be changed into 
the same image, from glory to glory. 

And not merely amidst the light, but amidst the 
discoveries made to the soul by that light. Men 
advance to ruin, while they see the path of salvation 
open, and plain, and easy before them — while they 
see the ruin to which they are tending : '"By mani- 
festation of the truth, commending ourselves to every 
man's conscience in the sight of God."' Even the 
very heathen perish not, save as they change the 
'-truth of God into a lie" — save as they refuse to 
'-retain God in their knowledge'" — save as they 
'•'hold the truth in unrighteousness." How much 
greater, amidst the light of the Sun of righteousness 
glowing over the house of prayer for all nations, 
are the inward manifestations ! The Scriptures — 
the instructions of the sanctuary — Providence — the 
striving Spirit ! How often a single word, a single 
event, flashes conviction into the darkest chambers 
of the soul ! I am witness against yourselves that it 
is even so. Have you forgotten how you betrayed 
your secret, thoughts at those sudden surprisals — on 
that sick bed — at that sudden bereavement of wife, 
or husband, or child ] Alas ! what a light then 
filled your whole soul ! What an open view you 
20* 



234 THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 

had of truth and duty — of the way of ruin, and the 
way of salvation ! What promises you made ! 
What prayers you offered up ! With what horror 
you drew hack from the path of perdition ! What a 
free step you seemed ready to put forth on the path 
of salvation ! Or. to refer to a more universal and 
constant manifestation — Are you afraid to die? Is 
it almost your daily and your only prayer, Let me 
die the death of the righteous 1 Alas, that fear to 
die, which makes you all your life-time subject to 
bondage, is the inward manifestation of the truth. 
The light of salvation shines on the path you refuse ; 
the glare of eternal fire is thrown back from the very 
path you take. 

How is the sinner lost amidst the light of salva- 
tion, with conscience aroused, fear wakeful, desire 
earnest, prayers ascending, and vows registered 
before the throne — looking with constant fear, and 
often with terrible alarm, upon the ruin to which he 
advances; with constant and often earnest desires 
upon the path of salvation which he forsakes for 
ever? Let us study this mystery of human folly 
and guilt, if haply we may ourselves be wise ! 

The answer is given in the text, and in corre- 
sponding Scriptures: "In whom the god of this 
world hath blinded the eyes of them that belie ve 
not." Through prayers wasted, through vows 
broken, men go downward to their ruin, because 
Satan lies, and their own hearts choose to believe 
and follow the falsehood. Against God. and against 
themselves, they go downward to be lost. In sight 
of the danger and the remedy, against their own 



THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 235 

impressions, desires, vows — down the very way 
they dread — the path of ten thousand terrors — and 
from the very path which lures and urges them to 
salvation. Let us never forget the mysterious reve- 
lation — of an unseen spirit, who tempts us to our 
ruin — the mysterious forewarnings of a powerful 
one, ever ready to work with our own sinful inclina- 
tions, to aid and encourage every allowed sin, 
especially at the times of manifestation ; at which, 
for our forewarning, we may note impressions ef- 
faced, temptations yielded to, and wrong principles, 
affections, and habits, chosen, cherished, and ma- 
tured. 

1. The lost meet their ruin at the points of 
impression. Providences often open the windows of 
the soul — mercies even, and how often afflictions, 
seeming as judgments for our sins — mere leisure and 
vacancy, especially amidst the silence, and dark- 
ness, and solitude of the night, when the soul seems 
to itself alone with God and truth, even as the bright 
firmament stands rei^ealed by the darkness which 
hides all things else — the recollections of the past, 
and the anticipations of the future — the example and 
precept of parents, and brothers, and sisters, and 
loving friends — the character of living saints — the 
peace and joy of the dying, and the yet speaking 
voices of the dead — the house of mourning, showing 
the end of all men, and the mourners going about 
the streets : how do all these flash conviction upon 
the darkest minds ! and how, above all and with all, 
do the worship and instructions of the Lord's house — 
how does the light of the glorious gospel of Christ 



236 THE LOST AT THE TE3IPLE. 

shine in upon the soul of man. and renew, at one 
moment, the manifestations of a life-time ! Here it 
is, as we are informed, that the tempter is peculiarly 
and intensely busy — here that he makes sure his 
fatal work. If he can succeed hi blinding the eye, 
at this glimpse and glancing of the hidden light — if 
he can efface the impression the moment it is made, 
his work is accomplished, and needs but to be re- 
newed as occasion may require, to secure that the 
soul, with its own foolish and wicked consent, 
should be for ever lost. Alas ! ten thousand mo- 
ments of the clearest light, shall prove thus but the 
flashes of the storm hi which the soul is lost. With 
this agrees the first case of the parable of the 
sower. 

2. Satan applies himself to the points of duty 
and temptation. 

So clear-eyed is conscience, so bright the light, so 
merciful the striving Spirit, so strong the inward 
manifestation, that even Satan's power and craft 
cannot always prevail at the moment of impression ; 
and convictions, and desires, and resolutions, and 
even joy in the word, often remain, when yet the 
soul has not truly believed — has not welcomed the 
light of the glorious gospel. Be sure that Satan 
will not give over until he tries again. Day passes 
after day — it may be, week passes after week, and 
the truth has a seeming manifestation within; the 
resolution seems unbroken, the desire unchanged, 
and even joy in the word at its prime. Alas ! the 
god of this world is at hand, at the points of duty 
and temptatiou, to darken all this seeming glory ! 



THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 237 

O, in what light will the soul walk forth on the path 
of the saved, if it now do the duty against which it 
is tempted ; if it now refuse the guilt to which it is 
allured ! But in what darkness, and to what ruin, 
if the deed be done to which the tempter invites ; 
if the duty be left undone, from which the tempter 
dissuades ! 

Our Lord's temptation furnishes both the warning 
and the encouragement for the points of duty and 
trial; especially following the manifestations of the 
truth, and joy in the word. Brother, sister, does it 
seem to you as if the Holy Spirit has lighted on you 
like a dove? It may be so. You will see. Watch 
for the hour of trial. You will be led forth, to be 
tempted of the devil. Ah ! this is the point for deep 
and rich experience of the omnipotence of that 
peace-giving Spirit — for a clear and decisive repent- 
ance — for forsaking the wrong when Satan seems to 
prove it right — for cleaving to the right when Satan 
seems to prove it wrong. Now is the time to put to 
flight the prince of darkness, and to be clothed in 
the armor of light, as our Lord put it on in the 
wilderness, amidst the ministry of angels ; and now 
is the time, when "the god of this world blinds the 
minds of them that believe not," that they may be 
lost. With this agrees the second case of the para- 
ble of the sower. 

3. Satan applies himself to the rooting and 
growth of counteracting principles, and affections, 
and habits. 

Impressions effaced — temptations yielded to — there 
needs no other care of Satan to secure that the soul 



238 THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 

be lost ; but another method is required when the 
impressions seem to remain, and the duties of a 
religious life to be done. If the manifestations within 
have issued in irreligion — in no religion, the soul is 
already self-impelled to its ruin : but false religion 
requires another method. "If the light that is in 
thee be darkness, how great is that darkness." If 
the religion you adopt cherishes vile principles, and 
affections, and habits, how deep and how fatal is the 
darkness of the soul ! So, we may fear, it has often 
been. Satan has aided and encouraged religious 
anxieties, and efforts, and prayers, yet choking the 
true word, and making it unfruitful, amidst "lusts 
of other things." Not merely when religious feel- 
ings vanish, but whenever they remain, amidst evil 
principles, and habits, and affections, chosen, cher- 
ished, and matured, the sinner does but go onward 
to be lost. With this agrees the third case of the 
parable of the sower. 

Thus, amidst the light, and under the inward 
manifestation of that light — against truth — against 
impression — against desire and resolution — against 
themselves — against God's striving, teaching, guiding 
Spirit — with Satan, and yielding to sin, against 
which full forgiveness and full power is revealed in 
the glorious gospel of Christ, do the lost go down- 
ward to their doom ! From what a height of oppor- 
tunity — through what a flood of light — with what a 
clear sight, do men turn away from the path of 
salvation ! With what fearful foresight— all their 
life-time, through fear of death, subject to bondage — 
do they press onward to eternal death ! Sinner, 



THE LOST AT THE TEMPLE. 239 

amidst such light — such convincing and transform- 
ing light — will you go downward to be lost 1 Afraid 
to die, will you choose the very death you fear? 
Anxious to be saved, will you refuse the very salva- 
tion you desire ? Feeling the first gnawings of the 
never-dying worm, will you take him to your bosom 
for ever? Feeling the first heat of the never- 
quenched fire, will you lie down in its everlasting 
burnings ? 

One word shall close this discourse. Be satisfied 
with no manifestation of the truth on your conscience 
or your heart, until your deeds are made manifest, 
that they are wrought in God — until you yield to 
the impressions you receive — until you follow 
your Lord in the path of temptation — until you 
grow in the principles, and affections, and habits of 
the saved. Be satisfied with no privilege for you in 
the house of prayer for all people, until you receive 
and welcome it — until you enter in at the open door, 
and abide in the holy place, with clean hands and a 
pure heart ; no, not with the healing light of the Sun 
of righteousness shining upon you, until you fear his 
name — until you are ceasing to be proud and do 
wickedly; lest you burn as an oven, and there be 
left neither root nor branch. 



SERMON XIII. 

SEPTEMBER 9, 1838. 
THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

1 Corinthians 1 : 18. 
But unto us which are saved, it is the power of God. 

I proceed this afternoon, following chiefly my 
discourse of February 25, to speak of the condition 
of the saved, and of their progress to salvation 
amidst the light of the gospel, under the healing 
beams of the Sun of righteousness, arisen on the 
Christian temple. Take heed how ye hear. I feel 
that I am speaking to dying men, hastening to be 
lost or to be saved — who may be lost — who may be 
saved. Would that I might win you to your oppor- 
tunity — to the full and endless blessedness which is 
assured to them who will receive it. Let no one 
blind his eye, amidst that rising light which is to 
shine in eternal glory. Let me try to win you over 
to your eternal well-being, while I speak, 1st, of 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 241 

the condition of the saved ; and 2d, of the manner 
in which that blessedness is attained. 

I. The condition of the saved. 

It is impossible for finite, and above all for sinful 
minds, fully to apprehend this subject. The only- 
way to approach a full apprehension, is to begin the 
experiment, and to carry it on to perfection, and for 
ever. Then our knowledge of that blessedness will 
grow to all eternity, and to all eternity never be 
completed. May grace enable every one of you to 
begin and to follow that knowledge of a blessedness 
ever growing and never finished. Bat if it cannot 
be fully described, we may, if we have any experi- 
ence of its beginnings, with the Scriptures to guide 
us, gain some faint ideas of the glory which is yet to 
be revealed in us. With regard to the future, as 
well as the present glory of Christ's kingdom, it 
may be said, God hath revealed them to all true 
believers by his Spirit, giving the earnest in their 
hearts of things which eye hath not seen, nor ear 
heard, nor the heart of man conceived. Let me try, 
with my own faint views, aided by the word, to 
present this blessedness before you. If you are 
saved — 

1. You will have within you, in the spirit and 
temper of your minds, the essential principles of 
happiness. " He that drinketh of the water that I 
shall give him," said the Saviour, "it shall be in 
him a well of water springing up into everlasting 
life." So it will be with you, if you are formed 
anew into Christ's image — if you are re-made in his 
likeness — if you purify yourself even as he is pure. 
21 



242 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

He asserts the spirit and temper which he gives, 
and which his disciples receive, as the ground of 
their blessedness, beginning here, and perfected 
hereafter. The beatitudes, or states of happiness, 
declared in the beginning of the Sermon on the 
Mount, are states of mind: " Blessed are the poor 
in spirit: for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. 
Blessed are they that mourn: for they shall be 
comforted. Blessed are the meek : for they shall 
inherit the earth. Blessed are they which do hun- 
ger and thirst after righteousness : for they shall be 
filled. Blessed are the merciful : for they shall 
obtain mercy. Blessed are the pure in heart: for 
they shall see God. Blessed are the peace-makers : 
for they shall be called the children of God." 
These states of mind are indeed forms of goodness 
proper to the earth; i. e., they belong to the ne- 
cessities, and weakness, and sinfulness, and suffer- 
ings, and anxieties of our present state : but for 
that very reason, they show with peculiar force, the 
power of giving happiness, belonging to a right 
temper. If, amidst circumstances which hinder the 
happiness of the present life, and while the right 
temper is still imperfect, it is found a living source 
of happiness ; if it proves peculiarly so in the great- 
est sufferings ; if the good man is resigned, and 
contented, and forgiving, and cheerful in his greatest 
trials ; what proof does he give of the beatitudes of 
his present state, and what a foreshowing of the 
blessedness of eternity, when all pain, and sin, and 
tears shall cease. If Stephen's face, amidst his 
deadly foes, shines like an angel's with love and 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 243 

with enjoyment ; if, while he is stoned to death, he 
is joyful in prayer, and praise, and forgiveness ; 
what must he the happiness of that spirit when it is 
released from its sufferings ! If St. Paul, amidst the 
greatest afflictions — in stripes, in imprisonments, in 
tumults, in labors, in watchings, in fastings — 
could rejoice in pureness, in knowledge, in long- 
suffering, in kindness, in the Holy Ghost, in love 
unfeigned, in the word of truth, in the power of 
God, in the armor of righteousness on the right hand 
and on the left; what must be his happiness, now 
that his graces are complete, and he is released from 
all sin and suffering ! One of my earliest medita- 
tions, as a Christian minister, which I tried in my 
youth to adopt as a Christian man, was on that 
inspired prayer, " O satisfy us early with thy mercy, 
that we may rejoice and be glad all our days." 
May I say, after the experience of many years in 
the conflicts of time, that if I have any earnest of 
the joys of eternity, it is in the answer to that 
prayer — in such peace on earth, as, I am willing to 
believe, is a faint foretaste of the blessedness of 
heaven? Indeed, unfitted as this world manifestly 
is, for an abiding place; much as we may say, 
"We would not live here always;" I am persuaded, 
it is much more improvement in spirit, than change 
of place, that is necessary to complete our happiness. 
Earth toould be like heaven, if the fountain within 
us were but pure and full. Nevertheless — 

2. If you are saved, you will find the place of 
your eternal abode fitted for the highest gratification 
of your full-grown graces; the right spirit, being 



244 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

perfected, will find its proper objects for gratification 
in their full glory. There will be an eye to see, and 
a glory to be seen. Hence the expressions of the 
apostle, in connection with the text, " For we that 
are in this tabernacle do groan, being burdened : not 
for that we would be unclothed, but clothed upon, 
that mortality might be swallowed up of life. Now 
He that hath wrought us for the self-same thing is 
God, who also hath given unto us the earnest of the 
Spirit. Therefore we are always confident, knowing 
that whilst we are at home in the body we are 
absent from the Lord (for we walk by faith, and not 
by sight) : We are confident, I say, and willing 
rather to be absent from the body and to be present 
with the Lord." So the same apostle, in the Epistle 
to the Philippians : " For to me to live is Christ, and 
to die is gain. But if I live in the flesh, this is the 
fruit of my labor ; yet what I shall choose I wot not; 
for I am in a strait betwixt two, having a desire to 
depart and to be with Christ '; which is far better." So 
St. John, the beloved disciple: "It doth not yet 
appear what we shall be ; but we know that when 
He shall appear, we shall be like him, for we shall 
see him as he is. And every man that hath this hope 
in him pnrifieth himself even as he is pure." And in 
that vision of heaven which the same beloved 
disciple saw, and which closes the divine revelation 
to man, what is it that makes heaven blessed ? "And 
he showed me a pure river of water of life, clear as 
crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of 
the Lamb. In the midst of the street of it, and on 
either side of the river, was there the tree of life. 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 245 

which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her 
fruit every month, and the leaves of the tree were 
for the healing of the nations. And there shall be 
no more curse; bid the throne of God and of the 
Lamb shall be in it ; and his servants shall serve him, 
and they shall see his face ; and his name shall be 
in their foreheads. And there shall be no night 
there, and they need no candle, neither light of the 
sun, for the Lord God giveth them light ; and they 
shall reign for ever and ever." " Blessed are they 
that do his commandments, that they may have a 
right to the tree of life, and may enter in through 
the gates into the city." 

The promise of the Saviour to his disciples was, 
"I go to prepare a place for you, that where I am 
there ye may be also." And his prayer was, u l 
will that they also whom thou hast given me be with 
me where I am, that they may behold my glory." 
The chief source of happiness in heaven will be the 
glory of the Saviour — of God and of the Lamb : the 
full and eternal day of a present God ; for which the 
soul was prepared by the discipline of earth. I will 
not mar the views which I have quoted from the 
Scriptures by any comment of my own. Happy are 
those of my hearers who are prepared to understand, 
by faith working by love, in their present state; 
and thus to know that when they shall be absent 
from the body they shall be present with the Lord ! 

But the happiness of heaven is not mere passive 

enjoyment — is not the mere sitting in the light of God 

and of the Lamb. "His servants shall serve him." 

Love on earth is occupied in obedience and well- 

21* 



246 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

doing ; and so it will be in heaven, to all eternity — 
the range of service being extended in proportion to 
the growth of character on earth ; or, in the language 
of the parable, it will be said to those who have been 
faithful in a very little, Have thou authority over 
much. If heaven is to be a place of rest, it is not of 
inactivity or confinement. They shall be equal to 
the angels, says our Lord; no doubt, in character 
and employment. And like as now, the angels wing 
their way to earth on errands of love, so may we 
suppose that the saved will be occupied, traversing 
the different regions of God's government, commu- 
nicating the happiness they feel wherever there are 
creatures capable of being made happy — 'thus, them- 
selves, more happy. 

But hitherto we have regarded only the individual. 
A single saint may be considered as happy, when the 
fountain of eternal life is full within himself; when 
faith and hope have issued in perfect love — the very 
principle of happiness, whether now or hereafter; 
and when that perfect love at once rests and is 
employed amid the full glory of God and of the 
Lamb ; when the purified heart sees the Infinitely 
Pure as he is, and becomes his servant in extending 
purity through his wide dominion. But heaven will 
be a society ; the happy will be made happier by 
aiding and enjoying each others' happiness. On 
earth, during their period of discipline and prepara- 
tion, piety grows purer and brighter, and more bles- 
sed, as it extends itself. In heaven, the enjoyment 
of perfect holiness will be social. Together, will the 
saints praise redeeming love, and join with all angels 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 247 

in the chorus to their own songs. Each will glow 
with the peaceful flame of love more intensely by- 
reflection from innumerable minds: — not the heat of 
a furnace, burning with unquenchable fire — but the 
cheerful brightness of a summer's day; where the 
river of life always flows, and the tree of life always 
yieldeth its fruit; amidst so full, and pure, and 
glorious a light, that there is no need of the sun ! 
And this may be all that these revealed images 
intend: — a society of the loving and the loved, 
circling round the very throne of love ! What higher 
conception can there be of perfect bliss ? To be part- 
ners in finished love ! Brothers in a brother-loving 
family! neighbors in a neighbor-loving neighborhood ! 
To be joined in society with the cement of love ! to be 
lighted up as a community with the perfect day-light 
of universal love ! to sit down for ever amidst the 
light of Infinite Love ! 

3. The saved will be rewarded by their Redeemer 
and Judge. It is not enough to say that a right 
state of mind will prove an inward fountain of 
eternal peace, or that a purified spirit will be pre- 
pared to rejoice for ever in communion with the 
Infinitely Pure; nor that this blessedness will be 
for ever promoted by the fellowship of all holy 
beings, in the same spirit and in the same sources of 
happiness. We must add the idea of reward; in 
which is embraced the perfect security of the charac- 
ter and condition of the saved, and the intimate 
connection of time with the blessings of etern ity. 

As to security — which at first angels had not in 
their original holiness; which not having in the 



248 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

garden of Eden, our first parents fell from their state 
of innocence — it is established in all that are saved ; 
partly, no doubt, as the effect of discipline in the 
settlement of character — as the result of the trials of 
the present life: "Tribulation worketh patience, 
and patience experience, and experience hope, and 
hope maketh not ashamed." "Blessed is the man 
that endureth temptation ; when he is tried, he shall 
come forth as gold." And partly, also, as the divine 
bestowment, in the judicial separation of the righteous 
and the wicked — the great gulf between the saved 
and the lost — barring Satan out, and securing heaven 
from all his devices. O, what a day to each saint 
when death finishes the conflict — when he has en- 
dured to the end — when Satan's devices have been 
finally escaped — Satan's power fully and for ever 
overcome — and angels are receiving his soul, to bear 
it beyond the gulf which Satan can never pass ! 
What an addition to his happiness in that assurance 
of eternal security ! And when at last all saints 
shall be gathered together at the last judgment — 
when saints already in heaven shall meet those that 
are alive at the last trump — what an addition to 
their united happiness will there be in the welcome, 
" Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom 
prepared for you from the foundation of the world !" 
And with what confirmed and established joy will 
that countless company enter into "life eternal!" 
No wonder at the peace, and even joy, of a dying 
hour, when the present struggle seems assuredly the 
last, and the vision of eternal holiness breaks in upon 
the dying eye ! 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 249 

But there is another thing embraced in the idea of 
reward, viz., the intimate connection of the blessings 
of eternity with time. It must be so, in the very- 
nature of things. The fountain which springs up 
here, will flow on for ever. But this necessity in the 
nature of things seems to have more than its natural 
scope — to have a special advantage given to it by 
God as a rewarder of those who diligently seek him. 
The smallest seeds sown on earth will ripen in 
increasing harvests for ever. He that soweth to the 
Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. A cup 
of water given in the name of a disciple — a visit to 
the prisoner in his cell — bread to the hungry and 
clothing to the naked — the employment of each 
talent and of all talents, the least and the greatest, 
will have their appropriate reward ; and the saved 
will for ever be deriving their happiness from the 
recollections of time; and this life, which now appears 
like a dream, and as a tale that is told — that seems 
like a hand-breadth — this little span of life — is des- 
tined to extend in its rewards through the ages of 
eternity. When ages shall have passed, the saved 
will be still drinking from the fountains of this life ; 
will be still cherishing their eternal life by the life 
which they lived in the flesh. The little fountain, 
springing up, scarce perceived in these courts to-day, 
will flow on for ever, and fill eternity from the 
spring-head of earth and time ! Be assured, amidst 
the fullest glory of eternity — in the most distant 
points of that endless being — you will never forget 
the imperfect services of time, of which you are 
receiving the reward. Onward as you pass, increas- 



250 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

ing in capacity to be blessed, and receiving the full 
river of increasing pleasure, will you see more clearly 
the minute spring-heads from which that river flows ! 
There is a fitness in things. In repeating this 
aphorism in the preceding discourse, did we not see 
how utterly impossible it was that man could sin 
himself into salvation 1 And do we not see here how 
utterly impossible it must be that he can "purify 
himself, even as Christ is pure," into misery and 
ruin! — nay, how he can become pure and not be 
essentially and for ever blessed. There is a fitness 
in things. You may suppose man doomed to earth 
— to stay here alwa}rs, away from the full glory of 
the throne of God ; still, in proportion to his growing 
into the image of his God and Saviour, would he 
be still changing from glory to glory, and from joy to 
joy, and earth, as it now is, would be, in degree, a 
heaven below. And how near to heaven will earth 
be, when the gospel shall be every where received, 
and all shall know the Lord, from the least unto the 
greatest ! Of that blessed period of this world's 
history, what glowing descriptions do the prophets 
give, making this world into the very image of 
heaven ; until, as we read, we are almost in doubt 
whether it be not of heaven itself that the prophets 
write: — "Violence shall no more be heard in thy 
land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; 
for thou shalt call thy walls salvation, and thy gates 
praise. The sun shall be no more thy light by day, 
neither for brightness shall the moon give light unto 
thee ; but the Lord shall be unto thee an everlasting 
light, and the days of thy mourning shall be ended. 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 251 

Thy people shall be all righteous. They shall inherit 
the land for ever — the branch of my planting, the 
work of my hands — that I may be glorified." There 
is a fitness in things. Earth will be like heaven, 
when the people become all righteous. 

But if we may speak thus of the happiness of 
earth — ever to be a state of discipline and trial — what 
assurance we may feel that the fitted soul, with the 
myriads of fitted souls, will enjoy the fitting glory of 
the throne of God and the Lamb for ever. O, then, 
when the likeness to the Saviour is finished and 
complete — when the trials have been all passed, and 
all have conspired in changing the soul into the same 
image, from glory to glory — when the calling and 
election have been made perfectly sure, and the 
fountain-heads of earth roll on in rivers of eternal 
life — then with what deeper meaning must the soul 
renew the exultation, which often occurred even 
amidst its earthly conflicts, " I am persuaded that 
neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, 
nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, 
nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall 
be able to separate us from the love of God which is 
in Christ Jesus our Lord!" With what unmoved 
assurance must he rejoice in receiving what was 
promised to his fitting and preparing spirit, " To 
him that overcometh will I grant to sit with me in 
nvy throne, even as I also overcame, and am set down 
with my Father in his throne. 

Beloved hearers — I offer in the name of the 
Redeemer to you — to each, to all — the hope of 
heaven • but of such a heaven as there is — the only 



252 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

heaven that is possible, a heaven of happiness for 
all who are fitted for it. Are you fitted for it ? If 
your earthly tabernacle were now to be dissolved, 
whither would your spirit fly, if it flew to its own 
place ? Be candid to yourself — be faithful to your- 
self : — would it — could it be to heaven ? Or must it 
be downward to your own chosen sin and wo? 

II. It remains that we should consider the pro- 
gress of the saved, as of the lost, amidst the light of 
the glorious gospel of Christ ; at the open temple, 
glowing in the healing beams of the Sun of right- 
eousness. 

1. Then the progress of the saved is amidst the 
common light and opportunity. 

In the provisions and the offers of the gospel there 
is no difference among those to whom they are sent. 
The same Jesus Christ the righteous, is a propitia- 
tion "for the sins of the whole world:" and the 
same Spirit is poured out "upon all flesh." The 
same gospel is preached to every creature; "He 
that believe th shall be saved." " If any man thirst, 
let him come unto me and drink." "'Whosoever 
shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." 
The same seal and confirmation are proffered to all 
nations ; baptism in the name of the Father, and of 
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost ; and the symbol, 
the light, arises over all the dwelling-places of man- 
kind. The light by which the saved enter and 
pursue their path to glory, shines alike over all — the 
saved and the lost. 

2. It is also amidst the common manifestations to 
the conscience and the heart — the common discov- 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 253 

eries made to the soul of man by the light of 
salvation — by the word and Spirit, enlightening, 
awakening, striving : — amidst the same hungerings 
and thirstings of needy and sinful man. Such im- 
pressions, and convictions, and anxieties, and desires, 
and earnest but unsubstantial prayers, referred 
to, as marking the path of the lost, are along the 
path of the saved. These manifestations of the 
truth are common to the saved and the lost. 

Before I proceed further, let me beseech those who 
enjoy this common light, and this common manifes- 
tation, to beware how they separate. At this point — 
at the very entrance — one step, and you are within 
the kingdom of heaven : one step, and you have 
entered the path of the saved. One step missed, and 
you are in the path of the lost. Together you have 
reached the point of choice — of decision — of accept- 
ance — of faith — of obedience — of salvation. Beware, 
lest it prove the point of refusal, of unbelief, of 
damnation ! 

3. The progress of the saved amidst the common 
light and manifestations, begins and proceeds by 
personal compliance with the terms of the gospel : — 
by choice — decision — faith — obedience. 

It is not that the saved find risen on them a light 
that shines not on the lost ; but that they come to the 
lights It is not that the saved are stung with 
convictions, are borne down with anxieties, are 
alarmed with fears, are moved with desires, to 
which the lost are strangers ; but that they yield to 
those impulses, and welcome the relief, and the 
healing, and the joy of the gospel. It is not that the 
22 



254 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

saved have a law to and within them, which has 
not been revealed to and within the lost, but that 
they obey in degree and progressively, that law. 

The difference between the lost and the saved, 
under the manifestation of the truth to every man's 
conscience, is, that the saved choose the good and 
refuse the evil : that they welcome the spirit of all 
good, and refuse the spirit of all evil. They look 
unto the Saviour and live. They ask, and they 
receive the Spirit : — poured over all — offered to all — 
even as a father offers the bread of his table to his 
needy children. This it is, that constitutes the dif- 
ference. I attempt no explanation ; for there can be 
none. Choice, decision, obedience, faith, — at the 
point of manifestation by the Spirit of God ; this is 
conversion — this is salvation. The Scripture ac- 
count need not be denied in order to add glory to 
God. " It is of faith, that it might be by grace." He 
who truly believes in God, will give him all the 
glory. How encouraging this view, amidst all the 
difficulties of salvation. Alas ! the corruption which 
we find, which we feel within us ! A corruption 
which has perverted and ruined our whole soul — 
and yet not so as to preclude the manifestation of 
truth to our conscience; indicating still the possi- 
bility of salvation. And yet again, alas ! for at the 
times of manifestation an unseen enemy — a deceiver 
too — watches and toils, if at the very point of choice 
and decision he may make us captives at his will — 
and yet not so as that we must need be lost : behold 
the Spirit, more mighty than the enemy of our souls, 
signifies his presence by the very convictions which 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 255 

we feel : by the very desires and longings which he 
prompts : and claims of us the choice, the decision, 
the welcome, that in Him, we may prevail. At the 
point of utmost danger, marked as Satan's hour by 
the conflict in your own bosom, the Holy Spirit is 
present in his strivings ; that he may be, in the deep 
and continued flow of your consenting and obedient 
heart. 

True, the subject is mysterious ; but no subject is 
more practical. What if we cannot understand the 
mystery which the gospel reveals 1 It is enough 
that we can understand that it does reveal it. 
What if we cannot understand the mystery of the 
power we do feel prompting our convictions, and 
anxieties, and desires; it is as plain that we do feel 
that power, as that Ave feel the unexplained mys- 
teries of hunger and thirst. What if Ave cannot 
understand the mystery of the poAver that Ave may 
feel, in the choice and decision and obedience re- 
quired ; it is as plain that we may feel it, as that 
bread and water can satisfy and restore the hungry 
and fainting ; or that motion and action can start up 
in our quiescent limbs. Ask not, Hoav can these 
things be ? Be it enough for you to know that they 
are : that the Almighty Spirit prompts, that he may 
fulfil your desire : requires, that he may enable your 
choice. Be it enough for you to know, that the Son 
of man is lifted up, that Avhosoever believeth on him 
might have everlasting life. In this simplicity of 
Scripture, in this Avisdom of the Wisest, would I 
speak. Hear and receive the gospel, and you shall 
bruise Satan under your feet shortly. 



256 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

Instead of searching the mystery, let us consider, 
as in our former discourse, the times of manifestation 
at which we may note for our encouragement the 
aid of the Spirit, in impressions yielded to — in temp- 
tations overcome, and in right principles and habits 
chosen, cherished, and matured. 

1. The saved yield at the points of impression: 
where Satan is most urgent, snatching away the 
word sown in the heart. At these points, a thou- 
sand times renewed, the impressions have proved the 
kind and powerful presence of the striving Spirit. 
O, at these points, welcome His power and you 
will be saved. Will you have example ? Paul was 
at the point of impression on the road to Damascus ; 
and before those impressions were effaced he chose, 
he decided, he believed, he obeyed, by that wel- 
comed power. His case vjas like yours in impres- 
sion — let yours be like his in choice, in decision, in 
faith, in obedience. The crowd at Pentecost were 
impressed : but they yielded to their impressions. 
You are impressed. Why may I not read in your 
eager looks the anxious, earnest question, What 
shall we do ? To you be the answer given to three 
thousand, when the Spirit signified his presence 
both by inward and outward signs. " Repent and 
be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus 
Christ, for the remission of sins, and ye shall 
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost." Yours often 
is — it may be now, such impression as they felt. 
Let their repentance be your own ; and you shall 
save yourselves from an untoward generation. If 
impression had been all, a few moments and Satan 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 257 

would have snatched all away — but they received 
and welcomed the good news of the Spirit, shed 
forth from the exalted Saviour, and called on the 
name of the Lord. Before that assembly broke up, 
they were enrolled among the heirs of salvation. 
And do you suppose that such a marvel is impossi- 
ble to-day, and before this assembly breaks up ? 

The points of impression ! How they cover all 
life ! — the Spirit conspiring with the varied discipline 
of Providence, in the manifestation of truth to the 
soul — the Spirit, as now perhaps, concentrating all 
the lights of experience on the present moment ; so 
vivid may be the recollection of convictions, and 
desires, and resolutions, and prayers ! O, if now 
the impressions of your growing years are revived, 
and glow, and burn within you ; if you remember 
how much you have lost by past neglects, think 
how intense, and fixed, and firm, aud abiding, may 
be the choice which may this moment spring up, 
if you will yield to the intense impression, produced 
by the remembrance of thousands. 

2. The Spirit signifies his presence, and assures 
his aid, at the points of duty and temptation. 

If, indeed, you have yielded to impressions; if 
you have retained the word in the heart, as the seed 
of increase, the work here will be comparatively 
easy. But Satan will not give over, because he has 
failed to snatch away the word; nor can you be 
yourself sure that you retain it as a living principle, 
until you have met his next onset and prevailed. 
The believer, even, cannot meet the shock, but by a 
renewed and vigorous resistance, by faith. The 
22* 



258 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

seeming believer, in whom faith has no root, will 
fail at the trial. At this point, the rooted faith must 
become more vigorous, or new faith strike root, 
asking and receiving the Holy Spirit. This is the 
point of opportunity. The perception of duty, the 
struggle in refusing it, are as sure tokens of the 
Spirit's presence, as the temptation is of the presence 
of the tempter. Here it is that character is ascer- 
tained, when it may have been already begun, by 
yielding to impressions. Here it is, chiefly, that 
character is formed — the impressions having been 
only preliminary to the struggle which was to form 
the saint, or establish the sinner in his course. 
Whatever may be your impressions, however deep 
and frequent, all is vain, unless you pass safely the 
hour of duty and trial. Nothing past can be sub- 
stantial and sure, if at these points we fail. What 
is Joseph, without the decision, " How shall I do 
this great wickedness, and sin against God?" 
What is Daniel, if he do not persist, and meet the 
lions in their den? Or Peter, if he do not repent, 
and triumph over Satan? It is decision at the 
points of duty and temptation, that fixes the charac- 
ter and destiny; that sows the seeds of eternal 
increase ; that opens the fountains of eternal peace. 

And these points of duty and temptation, of decis- 
ion and formation of character, how near upon those 
of impression ; how renewed, how constant along the 
whole course of life ! — sometimes, and more rarely, 
at what seem to us great and important moments ; 
oftener and always in the common and everyday 
concerns of men. How do men become truly reli- 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 259 

gious, and more and more religious? Is it not 
chiefly in bearing the burdens of life patiently ; in 
receiving the mercies of life meekly and thankfully ; 
in seeking the blessings of life humbly, and in doing 
the business of life honestly and kindly ; in meeting 
the provocations of life with love and forgiveness ; 
in using the appetites of the body lawfully and 
temperately; in governing and subduing the pas- 
sions; and in accomplishing all these religiously ', 
i. e., with God, with the Saviour, and with the Spirit? 
Or, in still briefer phrase, "What doth the Lord, 
thy God, require of thee, but to do justly, and to 
love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?" 
Well may Ave exclaim, How renewed and constant, 
are the points of duty and temptation, of decision 
and the formation of character? Here Satan is, 
alas ! But here, also, is the Spirit, ready to enable 
the conflict and the victory, on every path, and at 
every moment of life. " Blessed is the man that 
endureth temptation: when he is tried, he shall 
come forth as gold." 

It is proper, before closing this article, to remark 
on a prevailing mistake : I mean the universal, or 
almost universal, assertion, that a season of peculiar 
joy marks the rise of true religion in the soul of 
man. If there be first a season of religious anxiety, 
and that be followed by sensible relief — by special 
joy — how commonly it is assumed, how industri- 
ously and widely reported, that the subject "has 
experienced religion;" or if more modestly it be 
said, "has obtained a hope," yet does the report go 
unrestrained, as of the "hope that maketh not 



260 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

ashamed." A revival of religion is announced, and 
acknowledged just in proportion to the number of 
cases of such joy, and with as much assurance that 
it is indeed a revival of religion, pure and undented, 
as if every one of those cases of '''relief and '"joy," 
had "endured temptation," and proved themselves 
entitled to the blessing. Two considerations, if duly 
regarded, would disabuse the public mind of this 
prevailing error. First : our Saviour being witness, 
the greatest confidence is put in the least sign ! 
11 Receiving the word of God with joy," instead of 
being the proof, above all other proofs, of a true and 
lasting change, indicates the want of a heart prepared 
for the growth of the icord. " Immediately it sprung 
up, because it had no depth of earth ; and when the 
sun was up, it was scorched, and because it had 
no root it withered away." "And anon, with joy 
receiveth it; yet hath he no root in himself, but 
dureth for a while ; for when tribulation or persecu- 
tion ariseth because of the word, by-and-by he is 
offended." 

The other consideration, which might disabuse us 
of this error, is the actual illustration of our Saviour's 
declaration before our own eyes. Alas ! what mul- 
titudes are there over all society, who have been 
reported as converted, because they were relieved 
from anxiety — because they received the word of 
God with joy at the time : but who have fallen away 
into neglect, and sin, and even vice, in the subse- 
quent trials ! — while many, even of those in whom 
there may be still a remaining confidence, have 
been negligent almost to extreme, partly because 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 261 

their joyful change inspired too much hope in them- 
selves as well as others. The truth is, that receiv- 
ing the word of God with joy, is not the evidence of 
a true conversion ; nor is such a receiving by many 
any evidence of a true revival. Joy is no better 
evidence than the anxiety which precedes it. If 
anxiety issues in doing the will of God by faith, in 
the hour of trial, it is proved true, and will come 
forth as gold. If joy issues in neglect, and indiffer- 
ence, and disobedience, it is proved false, and per- 
ishes as dross. If we learn that one friend, or many 
friends, are anxious, let us forbear the report that 
they are true converts, lest that anxiety fail in the 
hour of temptation. If we learn that one, or many, 
are receiving the word of God with joy, let us point 
them to the parable of the sower, and wait till the 
sun be risen, and they have stood his scorching heat, 
before we receive or publish it as a revival of 
religion — if we would benefit them or the commu- 
nity — if we would rightly receive and hold the word 
of God, even for ourselves ! 

3. The Spirit signifies his presence and assures 
his aid with the constant claim and opportunity for 
the rooting, and growth, and fruitfulness of right 
principles, affections and habits. 

There can be no proof of the beginning of the 
kingdom of heaven in the heart, but its striking root 
downward, and bearing fruit upward ; none but the 
rooting, and growth, and fruitfulness of right prin- 
ciples, and affections, and habits. "But he that 
receiveth seed into the good ground, is he that heareth 
the word and understandeth it, which also beareth 



262 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

fruit, and bringeth forth fruit, some a hundred fold, 
some sixty, some thirty." 

And this work — the work of a life-time — of each 
year, and month, and day, and hour, and moment — 
this work of forming the character into the image of 
Christ — of purifying ourselves, even as he is pure — 
He has provided for in the gift of the ever-present 
Spirit. "And I will pray the Father, and he shall 
give you another Comforter, that he may abide with 
you for ever." If Satan is at hand, prompting our 
corruptions, the Spirit is ever present — stronger than 
our corruptions, stronger than our corrupter — to 
enable us in the work impossible to man. 

Here, too, we may remark upon the undue credit 
often given to religious appearances ; to the assertion 
of the work of the Spirit in those cases where the 
manifestations vanish in a few weeks or months ; 
where coldness, and vain-heartedness, and contention 
come in and occupy and possess the very bosoms so 
lately announced as rilled with the Spirit. " He 
also that received seed among the thorns, is he that 
heareth the word, and the cares of the world and 
the deceitfulness of riches choke the word, and he 
becometh unfruitful." Whatever Ave may judge at 
the time, of the effectual presence of the Holy Ghost, 
there was not that presence, unless it abides for ever. 
Whenever, after a six months, or a year, or years, 
have elapsed, he does not manifest his abiding and 
his fruits, we are bound to conclude, not that he was 
truly received, but that he was expelled by a worldly 
people or church, who, in their chosen worldliness, 
did not even then know him, nor see him, nor receive 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 263 

him; as it is written of "the Spirit of truth, whom 
the world cannot receive, because it seeth him not, 
neither knoweth him." There is no revival of true 
religion any where, except where the people begin 
to be right and do right, by the Spirit, " which 
abideth for ever; " and there was no revival, years 
ago, where the people have not, by the Spirit, been 
enabled to be right and do right more and more ; 
where the seed, and the root, and the growth, and 
the fruit, have not prevailed and been established. 
Go over society, and count by hundreds and by 
thousands those numbered, in the common speech, 
as having "experienced religion," but who are now 
neglectful, prayerless, dead, even as to the religion 
they seemed to receive, and who fail altogether in 
the principle and practice of righteousness ; who are 
not rooted and grounded, and fruitful in right affections, 
and principles, and habits ; they are, they were, the 
" world," for they did not receive, or see, or know 
"the Spirit of truth," "the Comforter who abides 
for ever." 

Those "new converts," who do not remain con- 
verted from the error of their ways ; those who 
" experience religion," and yet do not show "tribu- 
lation working patience, and patience experience, 
and experience hope, which maketh not ashamed; " 
that revived church, which does not remain green 
and fruitful, but in a chosen drought and barrenness 
— did not, even amidst the glory of the outpoured 
Spirit, which they proclaimed — did not see, or know, 
or receive that spirit which abideth for ever. Nay, 



264 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

they were themselves " the world," who, in their 
worldliness, could not receive that Spirit. 

They only are true "converts," who remain con- 
verted; truly "experienced," whose experience grows 
along their path of trial; truly "revived," who 
"bring forth fruit, and whose fruit remains." No 
matter how silently the word and the Spirit entered 
the heart ; how unseen the conversion, or experience, 
or revival ; it took root downward, and bears fruit 
upward. 

Such is the progress of the saved — yielding to 
impressions, meeting the points of duty and trial 
with faith and decision, and cherishing every right 
principle, and affection, and habit. These are they, 
" which, in an honest and good heart, having heard 
the word, keep it, and bring forth fruit with patience." 
" He that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the Spirit 
reap life everlasting." If we pursue thus the path 
of the saved, we shall soon be able to say — anticipa- 
ting the end — "We know that if our earthly house 
of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building 
of God, an house not made with hands, eternal in 
the heavens." "In a moment, in the twinkling of 
an eye, at the last trump; for the trumpet shall 
sound, and the dead shall be raised, incorruptible, 
and we shall be changed . . . So, when this cor- 
ruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this 
mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be 
brought to pass the saying that is written, Death is 
swallowed up in victory." "O death, where is thy 
sting ? O grave, where is thy victory ? The sting 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 265 

of death is sin, and the strength of sin is the law. 
But thanks be to God, who giveth us the victory, 
through our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, my 
beloved brethren, be ye steadfast, unmovable, always 
abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye 
know that your labor shall not be in vain in the 
Lord/' 

Alas, the difference ! Amidst the common light of 
the gospel — amidst the common manifestations to 
the conscience, the lost leaving the path of holiness, 
and peace, and heaven, which glows before them, 
and choosing the path of sin, and pain, and hell, 
which glares on them with sure tokens of destruc- 
tion ! The saved turning from that same fearful 
glare, and going upward that same way of holiness, 
covered with the light of life, and crowns and ever- 
lasting joy upon their heads ! It is sin finished, that 
bringeth forth death. Sin is the worm that dieth 
not, and the fire that is not quenched. It is victory 
over sin, it is holiness full grown, that fits the soul 
for heaven. If you allow and cherish sin ; if you 
refuse the blood which cleanses — the Spirit which 
transforms — you will be lost, though you live 
under the full light of the Sun of righteousness, and 
feel within your conscience the manifestation of the 
truth. If you believe the Saviour, and receive the 
Spirit; if you yield to his impulses within you; 
if you strengthen yourselves in his strength, and 
grow in him, in every right principle, and affection, 
and habit — though Satan has beset all your path 
with his temptation, you will be saved, and you will 
23 



266 THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 

sit in the light of the throne of God and of the Lamb 
for ever ! 

Alas, the difference of condition is a difference of 
character ! The saved and the lost at first in the 
same light, and the subjects of the same inward 
manifestations ; both impressed — both anxious — both 
alike — until one yields and the other refuses ! until 
one accepts what the other rejects ! You may be 
sitting before me alike — the next moment there may 
be a difference begun, as wide as between choice 
and refusal of God as your Lawgiver, Portion, 
Helper : a difference which shall grow as wide as 
the distance between hell and heaven. " He that 
soweth to the flesh, shall of the flesh reap corrup- 
tion ; and he that soweth to the Spirit, shall of the 
Spirit reap life everlasting." The smallest seed of 
sin let to grow, will yield bitterness and sorrow, in 
its increase, for ever ! The least kernel of God's 
word, cherished in the heart by the Spirit, will bear 
fruit unto life everlasting. 

You mark the terms we employ, and the truths 
they convey, and the terrible distinction of the sinner 
from the saint ; and will any say that thus described 
they are alike in their progress and their end ? Is 
not their beginning as different as yielding to Satan 
and yielding to the Holy Ghost? Is not their pro- 
gress as different as growth in sin and growth in 
holiness ? and their end as different as the sin which 
gnaws and burns for ever, and the holiness which 
cheers and gladdens for ever, in the light of the 
throne of God and of the Lamb ? 



THE SAVED AT THE TEMPLE. 267 

And is not this the "change" that is needful — 
the "change of heart " and the "change of life'' — 
though in describing it, we have used neither the 
word nor phrase? Does any one wish, can any one 
wish, that the "change of heart and life" should he 
more clearly stated, more distinctly marked, more 
absolutely required? How so? Can the sin we 
urge from, be forsaken, and the holiness we urge 
to, be received, without "a change of heart and 
change of life," by the mighty working of God's 
Spirit 1 But if these be the most intelligible terms, 
then let "a change of heart and a change of life" 
ring through our community, as the requirement of the 
gospel ; as the only commencement and progress of 
salvation. If we follow the Scriptures in our minis- 
try, we shall employ a thousand other terms, and 
concern ourselves more with the essential truth than 
the mere form of words; and years might pass, unless 
our attention were called to it, without our naming 
the terms which we now employ : but let it never be 
thought that we forget or darken the essential truth, 
so long as it is expressed in any terms which are as 
clear as the noon-day. That minister never will 
hide the requirement for "a change of heart and 
change of life," who is for ever asserting sin as the 
seed of eternal death, and holiness as the seed of 
eternal life ! 



SERMON XIV 



SEPTEMBER 16, 1S38. 



THE INTERVAL FOR PRAYER IN BEHALF OF PUBLIC 
WORSHIP. 



Psalm 122 : 6. 
Pray for the peace of Jerusalem. 

I wish, for reasons which will appear before the 
day is through, to consider this as an interval in my 
discourses on public worship. The purpose of public 
worship, of its offices of worship and instruction, 
and the divine call, have been urged upon you. 
Last Lord's day we paused, amidst the healing light, 
before the consuming fires of the sanctuary : in view 
of the saved and the lost by means of one and the 
same opportunity — of one and the same manifestation. 
I have yet to urge the peculiar fitness of the divine 
institution, for accomplishing its high purposes ; but 
I defer this attempt to another day. At this interval 
I would secure two advantages, without which my 
effort will be in vain ; with which, I may expect it 



PRAYER IN BEHALF OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 269 

to be crowned w^ith great and lasting success. And 
first, I ask your prayers in aid of public worship. 
Let me distinctly state for vjhat and why. 

I. For what !■ In two words — for the right-order- 
ing and right-receiving of public worship. 

1. The right-ordering. For me, as its present 
officer ; that I may be divinely directed and enabled 
in its services ; that I may prove indeed an ascension 
gift of the Saviour, richly furnished for the perfecting 
of the saints, for the work of the ministry, for the 
edifying of the body of Christ ; that I may keep the 
whole commandment given me in your behalf, 
" without spot, unrebukable, until the appearing of 
our Lord Jesus Christ." Ever maintain the ancient 
prayer, " Let thy priests, O Lord, be clothed with 
salvation." 

For the church ; that it may prove, like the ancient 
Jerusalem, a city set on an hill, which cannot be 
hid ; or as the very temple itself, built on the chief 
corner-stone, " a spiritual house, an holy priesthood 
to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God 
through Jesus Christ;" worthy the titles of the 
"house of God — the church of the living God — the 
pillar and ground of the truth; " that its excellence 
may give free course to the ordinances of public 
worship. Unite the two parts of that ancient 
prayer: "Let thy priests, O Lord, be clothed with 
salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness." 

2. Pray, also, for the right-receiving of public 
worship; for, to what purpose is the order, if the 
people do not come, or do not come with due rev- 
erence and expectation 1 Alas ! the temple — divine- 

23* 



270 INTERVAL FOR PRAYER 

ly ordered as it was, and filled with the glory 
of the Lord — failed of its purpose when it was not 
reverenced and sought unto as the fountain-head of 
blessings. So it must prove whenever the Christian 
temple is not duly honored. Hence we should pray 
not only for the right-ordering, but for the right- 
receiving of public worship — that the people may 
flow unto it as the source of their blessings : that its 
instructions may be sought unto as living and life- 
giving ; and its forms as the very means of trans- 
formation. In a word, pray that the people — each 
and all — may adopt the method of piety furnished in 
the Christian temple ; enter the way of approach to 
God, which it opens before them, and yield heart 
and character to its mould. 

And here, how appropriately may I ask your 
prayers in behalf of my present attempt to commend 
public worship to the people. Having gone first to 
every part of the town, and almost literally to every 
individual, with the urgent commendation of the 
institution ; and then having renewed it for weeks 
in this house, with little apparent effect, how appro- 
priately may I ask — how am I even compelled to 
ask — your prayers that the attempt may not be in 
vain. If, as I have supposed, there may be as many 
who neglect, as there are who attend, public wor- 
ship ; if with a population of about two thousand, 
there are not more regular attendants than might 
fairly be required with a population of one thousand ; 
if when seven hundred may be supposed present, 
there must also be supposed another seven hundred 
absent without good cause, will you not pray for a 



IN BEHALF OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 271 

blessing on the attempt to call the people to public 
worship 1 Will you not pray that the hundreds 
needlessly, and therefore guiltily absent, may see the 
beauty and the glory of the Christian temple, and may 
flow uniformly, and habitually, and joyfully thither; 
that from our whole people we may hear the de- 
termination — man strengthening man — "Our feet 
shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem. Jeru- 
salem is builded as a city that is compact together ; 
whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord unto 
the testimony of Israel; to give thanks unto the 
name of the Lord." Will you not pray that those 
who do come, and those who may come flocking to 
the courts of the Lord, crowding and overcrowding 
all existing accommodations, may worship the 
Father in spirit and in truth ; and thus become pre- 
pared for the worship of the eternal temple. 

II. I proceed now to say, vihy you should thus 
pray. 

1. Because public worship is God's ordinance, 
and therefore fitted for its high purpose. Like the 
Sabbath, it " was made for man," and is fitted to 
promote man's highest welfare and God's highest 
glory. It is worthy of your prayers. You knew, 
before I referred you to the history, how this institu- 
tion crowned the finished creation, and was ushered 
in by the songs and shouts of the morning stars, and 
all the sons of God ; how it was renewed, and 
endowed with transforming power, over the altar of 
Abel ; how it was restored amidst the retiring waters 
of the Deluge; how it was enlarged and improved 
by the setting up of the Tabernacle ; how it was 



272 INTERVAL FOR PRAYER 

established and made glorious in the Temple as a 
sign to all nations : and how it was given to the 
world when the Saviour died, and the veil was rent ; 
how thenceforward one Priest was to stand in the 
holy place, a propitiation and a helper, until all 
nations should worship in the house of prayer. You 
knew it was God's ordinance, and therefore worthy 
of your prayers. Unless I am utterly deceived, my 
effort is according to God's ordinance — is in unison 
with the call of all ages — with every Sabbath's call 
to public worship, and it, then, is worthy of your 
prayers. 

2. Because God has committed it to your prayers. 
Though his ordinance, it is not so his as to be separate 
from you., It " is made for man ;" and He has com- 
mitted it to the desires and prayers of men. " Pray for 
the peace of Jerusalem," is God's command, grounded 
on the very nature of the ordinance : on your own 
nature. If He commits it to your prayers, yon can 
in no other way duly or profitably receive it. If He 
requires your prayers, who shall say Him nay ? If 
He requires your prayers in order to give scope to 
an institution made for you, will you say Him nay? 
If his officer, in the exercise of his office, grieving 
over hundreds who neglect the Lord's house, asks, 
and requires your prayers, will you even say him 
nay? 

3. Because the ordinances of the Lord's house 
are committed to human weakness. The smallest 
matters are not to be undertaken without prayer. 
" Acknowledge the Lord in all thy ways, and he 
will direct thy steps." " Give us this day our daily 



IN BEHALF OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 273 

"bread."' " Be careful for nothing, but in every thing 
with prayer and thanksgiving let your requests be 
made known unto God." You must undertake 
nothing without prayer. 

If, then, the ordinances of God be committed to 
human weakness ; the greatest things to the weakest 
means : the highest interests of man for time and 
eternity — to weak and sinful man ; what can we do 
but pray ? What, but recommit to God the infinite 
cause which he has committed to us ; even as Solo- 
mon recommitted the temple to Him whose glory 
had filled it. " Let thine eyes be open, and thine 
ears attent unto the prayer that is made in this 
place. . . . Now therefore arise. O Lord God, into 
thy resting-place, thou and the ark of thy strength. 
Let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with salva- 
tion, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness." 

Especially, how ought prayer to grow amidst our 
unsuccessful efforts — amidst the proofs of our weak- 
ness ! / have labored as an officer of the Lord's 
house, that its grace might not be in vain — and yet 
how extensively in vain ! — that hundreds who come 
not to the sanctuary might come, but they do not 
come. I have carried down the urgency to every 
district, and to every door, and to every ear, but 
still, they do not come ; still, well filled as these seats 
are, the ways of Zion mourn because multitudes do 
not come to her solemn feasts. I have renewed my 
urgency for weeks in this house, insisting that you 
bring the multitudes with you, but still, they do not 
come. What remains but prayer ? What other re- 
sort has my weakness, and yours, but prayer? / 



274 INTERVAL FOR PRAYER 

must pray — you must pray for an influence with our 
weakness which shall bring the people to the Lord's 
house, and enable them to worship the Father in 
spirit and in truth. 

4. Because from the very nature of the blessings 
of the Lord's house they can only come with prayer. 
The "house of prayer for all nations," cannot prove 
a blessing in any nation, or among any people, ex- 
cept with prayer. How can a blessing be received if 
we do not acknowledge it, — if we deny it in the very 
sources from which it is to flow dozen upon us ? Even 
so it must be according to the promise, Ezekiel 36. 
" Then will I sprinkle clean water upon you, and ye 
shall be clean. A new heart also will I give you, 
and a new spirit will I put within you. Thus saith 
the. Lord God, Twill yet for this be inquired of by the 
house of Israel to do it for them. I will increase 
them with men like a flock : as the holy flock : as 
the flock of Jerusalem in her solemn feasts : so shall 
the waste cities be filled with flocks of men. and 
they shall know that I am the Lord." Only by 
prayer, and in answer to prayer, with our urgency 
and with our ordinances, may this people be brought 
to the house of prayer ; and to worship the Father 
in spirit and in truth. 

5. The prayers of all ages have centred on God's 
sanctuary, and been answered through it, in bless- 
ings on the people. The text indicates this. '-Pray 
for the peace of Jerusalem. They shall prosper that 
love thee. Peace be within thy walls, and prosperity 
within thy palaces. For my brethren aud com- 
panions' sake, I will now say, Peace be within thee." 



IN BEHALF OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 275 

Nehemiah' s history illustrates this. Hannani re- 
ported to Nehemiah — "The remnant that are left of 
the captivity are in great affliction and reproach; 
the wall of Jerusalem is broken down, and the gates 
thereof are burned with fire." "And it came to 
pass when I heard these words, that I sat down and 
wept and mourned certain days, and fasted and 
prayed before the God of heaven." And the prayers 
of Nehemiah were followed with the restoration of 
the temple, and God's blessing on its holy services. 

Daniel exemplifies this. Instructed by the pro- 
phecy of Jeremiah, he "set his face unto the Lord 
God, to seek by prayer and supplications, with 
fasting and sackcloth and ashes;" — with these and 
many other words. " O Lord, according to all thy 
righteousness, I beseech thee let thine anger and thy 
fury be turned away from thy city Jerusalem ; thy 
holy mountain. . . . Now therefore, O our God, hear 
the prayer of thy servant, and his supplications, and 
cause thy face to shine upon thy sanctuary, that is 
desolate, for the Lord's sake. . . . O Lord hear; O 
Lord forgive ; O Lord hearken and do ; defer not 
for thine own sake, O my God ; for thy city and 
thy people are called by thy name." And these 
prayers, at their very beginning, were met by a 
commandment going forth, assuring an answer in 
blessings upon Israel, and all nations, in all future 
ages. 

The apostles exemplify this. While they tarried 
in Jerusalem for the promise of the Spirit — to be 
endowed with power from on high — " These all con- 
tinued with one accord in prayer and supplication," 



276 INTERVAL FOR PRAYER 

until the morning of the Spirit's visitation, when 
suddenly " they were all rilled with the Holy Ghost.' 7 

6. The prophecies of the future glory of the 
Christian church fix our hopes upon the prayers 
which centre on the sanctuary, and are answered 
thence in blessings on the people, as Isaiah 62. 
"For Zion's sake I will not hold my peace, and 
for Jerusalem's sake I will not rest, until the right- 
eousness thereof go forth as brightness, and the 
salvation thereof as a lamp that burnetii. I have 
set watchmen upon thy walls, which shall never 
hold their peace day nor night. Ye that make 
mention of the Lord, keep not silence, and give him 
no rest until he make Jerusalem a praise in the 
earth." 

And lastly, we are assured of the intercession of 
the Redeemer himself with our prayers in behalf of 
his sanctuary, rendering them acceptable and avail- 
ing. " Yet have I set my king upon my holy hill 
of Zion. Ask of me and I will give thee the heathen 
for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the 
earth for thy possession." "I pray not for these 
alone, but for them also which shall believe on me 
through their word." "And another angel came 
and stood at the altar, having a golden censer ; and 
there was given unto him much incense, that he 
should offer it with the prayers of all saints upon 
the golden altar which was before the throne. And 
the smoke of the incense, which came with the 
prayers of the saints, ascended up before God out of 
the angel's hand." 



IN BEHALF OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 277 

Brethren, pray for a blessing on this house of 
worship. Pray that those who statedly assemble 
here may be transformed by its forms ; and that the 
multitude without, may be partakers with us of the 
blessings of the sanctuary. Pray thus like Nehe- 
miah, like Daniel, like the apostles, like the saints 
of future times, and our Redeemer himself. Let 
your prayers for a blessing upon Zion go up as sweet 
incense, from the hands of the an'gel of the covenant, 
and new scenes will greet our eyes; hundreds coming 
to worship before God, to be taught in his ways, and 
to walk in his paths. 



24 



SERMON XV. 



SEPTEMBER 16, 1838. 



THE INTERVAL FOR PAINS IN BEHALF OF PUBLIC 
WORSHIP. 



Psalm 122: 1. 

I was glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the house 
of the Lord. 

I have asked your prayers in behalf of the Lord's 
house, and of my own effort to fill it with worship- 
pers — to crowd it with the whole people, coming up 
as the tribes of the Lord unto the testimony of 
Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. 
Will you deny this request of the officer of the 
Lord's house? The Lord himself, set as a king 
upon his holy hill of Zion, asks your prayers, in 
harmony Avith the prayers of all saints. Will you 
deny his request? 

And yet, there is one condition, without which I 
cannot ask your prayers — without which, your 
prayers will prove themselves heartless and worth- 
less — without which, the Lord himself will disdain 



INTERVAL FOR PAINS IN PUBLIC WORSHIP. 279 

and reject them, even if in word and in tongue you 
came to offer them — and that is, your pains-taking 
to bring to pass that for which you pray; your 
pains-taking to fill God's house with true and spirit- 
ual worshippers. There can be no acceptable and 
availing prayer, where there is not correspondent 
pains. I ask, therefore, at this interval, with your 
prayers, your pains-taking in bringing the people, as 
a people, to worship the Father in spirit and in 
truth, in his holy temple. 

I propose, this afternoon, a singular, but I trust 
not unprofitable, sermon. If it accomplish the de- 
sign I have in view, it will never be forgotten, and 
will be referred to hereafter as the corner-stone of 
blessings for time and for eternity. It will prepare 
the way for a blessing with all future opportunities, 
even to the remotest generations. When we are 
dead, the voice that now speaks will yet speak, nor 
be silenced in all ages. My discourse will consist of 
a notice, of an acknowledgment, and of a request, all 
in unison with the text. 

1. Of a notice — viz., I propose, next Sabbath, to 
deliver a discourse on the advantages of public wor- 
ship, for promoting the morals and piety of the 
people, and invite the whole town, not attending other 
places of worship, to be present. Take notice^ that 
what I thus announce, is not a mere common dis- 
course ; for it is the crowning discourse of several 
which have been intended to exalt this great insti- 
tution; as those discourses were intended as the 
crowning effort, after the similar attempt last fall 
in the several districts of this town ; and is intended, 



280 THE INTERVAL FOR PAINS 

if it succeed, to have a guiding influence hereafter ; 
to give extension and power to every prayer, and 
every psalm, and every sermon, on this spot, in all 
coming time ; and combining with all the powers of 
the family and neighborhood, and aided by the in- 
fluence of Providence and the Spirit, to crown the 
whole town, now and for ever, with blessings ! And 
I dare to say, if this town — hundreds more than 
I see here to-day — will meet me here next Sabbath, 
some impression will be made upon them of the 
value of the ordinance, and some improvement will 
ensue in the principles, and habits, and character 
of the people ; in their good morals, in their genuine 
conversion, in their growing sanctification. Nor do 
I give this notice, without the prayer and the hope, 
that hundreds will respond to it, and that the same 
Spirit which fell upon the company assembled at the 
invitation of Cornelius, will fall also on us, in the 
fulness of blessing, and as the earnest of abiding and 
growing blessings in years and ages yet to come. 

I give notice, then, to all not otherwise engaged 
at public worship, of my intention, the next Lord's 
day, to deliver a discourse on the advantages of 
public worship, for promoting the morals and piety 
of the people. This notice, if it take due effect, 
must bring together some seven hundred more than 
we usually see. I cannot tell where they will 
bestow themselves, so narrow are our accommoda- 
tions ; and yet I never gave a notice which I was 
more anxious to have complied with. 

2. I have next to make an acknowledgment of my 
fear that this notice will be in vain, and that I shall 



IN BEHALF OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 281 

miss the opportunity, which I long for, of pleading 
the cause of public worship — i. e., the people's 
cause — before the people. I have lived too long, to 
expect absolutely, what I now propose. I have 
made trials enough, in this very matter, to justify 
the fear, that the people will not give heed, even to 
their own cause ; that they will not comply with 
the kindest proposals, even while they know and 
acknowledge that they are designed and suited for 
their welfare. Why should I not fear, when I see 
how little has resulted from my effort a year ago ; 
carried, though it was, to every part of the town — 
to every family, and almost to every individual 
whom I now invite. They heard the call, and I 
dare to say, they felt that it was just and right. 
They could not say nay, when they were called to 
so plain a duty and privilege as public worship — the 
source and fountain-head of all other duty and 
privilege. But was I yielded to? Did the multi- 
tude come together at my call — at God's call, by 
me, I trust divinely sent abroad, through all our 
population? If they had, these seats, and these 
aisles would have been crowded and over-crowded 
this day, and other houses too, by a people triumph- 
ing over little inconveniences and hindrances, that 
they might fulfil the duty at the head of all other 
duties, and enjoy the privilege at the head of all 
other privileges. Ay, months ago, a new era would 
have commenced in this town, the era of public 
vwrship. And O, what blessings, above all price, 
might have come upon us, as a people, before this 
day, to grow upon us hereafter, if but a few had 
24* 



282 THE INTERVAL FOR PAINS 

first listened to that call ; and then more, following 
their example and listening to their call ; if tens and 
hundreds had been roused ; if conscience had awoke, 
and the people had flocked, in growing crowds, to 
the courts of the Lord, worshipping him in the 
beauties of holiness ! What improvement had 
there been in the public morals ! what conversions 
from sin to holiness ! what progress in the ways of 
righteousness ! And how, ere this, should I have 
been thanked as a public benefactor, not because 
I had done much, but because the little that I did 
had been welcomed by a considerate and consenting 
community ! Alas ! how can I do otherwise than 
fear that the renewed effort and appeal will be in 
vain ? 

But if I speak of fear, it is not without hope. I 
have lived too long — I have seen too much of God's 
blessing on man's feeble efforts, to despair. I have 
not found his blessing so utterly lacking on my own 
attempts, as to induce despair. I do not think the 
effort of last fall was altogether lost, or will prove so 
hereafter. It . was God's word, I verily believe, 
which went forth, calling the people to keep the 
Sabbath from polluting it, to take hold of God's 
covenant, and to be joyful in his house of prayer; 
it should not, therefore, return void; and as I see 
the signs, I do not believe it has been, or will prove 
hereafter, utterly in vain. I hope, also, and will 
cherish the hope, that this renewed effort, on suc- 
cessive Sabbaths — that this present notice, and the 
appeal proposed the next Lord's day, will not be hi 
vain, and that next Sabbath, such numbers will 



IN BEHALF OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 283 

crowd these courts, as will astonish as well as 
delight us — as will indicate a new era in our his- 
tory. 

Yes ; and there are other reasons for hope. The 
old custom of New England, which brought the 
whole people to God's house, has not yet altogether 
lost its influence. The conviction that public wor- 
ship is a binding duty, and an invaluable blessing, 
has not utterly vanished away. Negligent as many 
are, they are not quite at ease in their negligence ; 
and negligent as are many fathers and mothers, the 
children are not quite at ease in the absence from 
public worship to which they have been trained. 
Ancient customs and present customs have, I trust, 
more influence on the people, than is commonly 
supposed, and prepare them to hear the counsels of 
a friend; the earnest advice and entreaty of the 
officer of public worship, and of neighbor and brother,, 
who may give this notice circulation through the 
community. 

There is still another reason for hope. I mean, 
because God has been disciplining the people for 
this very thing — even as he did the captives of 
Babylon, who were exiled for dishonoring his holy 
temple. Many are returning from their dispersion ; 
many who icere neglectful of public worship, during 
their former prosperity, who, we will hope, may 
now be returning, prepared to honor God's house as 
the seat and centre of all durable prosperity. How- 
ever this may be, we know that divine discipline 
once wrought upon an entire people ; making them 
mourn, in their exile from the sanctuary they had 



284 THE INTERVAL FOR PAINS 

slighted, and preparing them to return with gladness 
and with fidelity to the courts of the Lord. Be it 
so in our re-assembling villages. 

At least, for next Sabbath, as a special matter, I 
will hope. Why not ? How easy it has proved to 
bring the whole town together ! How easy to bring 
together, on even minor questions, our almost four 
hundred voters ! Was there ever a more important 
town-question, than the one now proposed? Why 
may I not hope that the town will come together, 
and hear, and consult, and concert, for the extension 
and glory of public worship 1 

3. To this notice and acknowledgment, I have to 
add a request ; viz., that you witt carry this notice to 
every ear in town, and add your own urgency with 
your kindred and friends : at least, that they will 
present themselves for once, when the official urgency 
of the past year is to be employed, as far as may be, 
upon the assembled town ; when, at least, it shall be 
attempted to secure, hereafter, the public attendance 
on public worship; with such arrangements as a 
universal attendance would require. 

In truth — for the whole people cannot hear the 
notice which I give — I wish to send word by you, 
as by a Cornelius, to all your kinsmen and near 
friends ; — the urgent request on my part and yours : 
with the offer on your part of your own accommo- 
dations ; willing, as I doubt not you all are, to be 
crowded out of your own seats, if others will fill 
them. Try, for once, to give me fair scope in pleading 
the cause of public worship with the public. Get for 
me, if you can ; the ear of the whole town : nor think 



IN BEHALF OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 285 

the effort vain. If you are tried with such fears, 
yet do my message with such hopes as I have ex- 
pressed. Let me give you my message a little more 
particularly. 

I send word, then, by you to the West ; to the 
Washington Furnace, and its adjacent farms ; that 
spot which it was said but a few days ago would 
never revive ; but which is soon to be alive with its 
former bustle and business. Tell them, as I told 
them last fall, that if they will sustain public worship 
among themselves, Sabbath after Sabbath, and year 
after year, nobody shall rejoice more than I ; but 
if they cannot — if they do but maintain a mere 
casual institution, and substitute it instead of the 
regular and stated ordinance, and spend their Sab- 
baths, for the most part, without public worship, 
then that no one shall lament it more than I. Tell 
them how much better is a regular than an irregular 
institution ; a constant than an interrupted one ; an 
established than an unsettled one; and how much 
better it would be to cleave to their ancient centre, 
than to be satisfied with irregular, interrupted, and 
unsettled attempts in its stead. Tell them to see to 
it that their families do not grow up without the 
good habit of public worship, which they received 
from their fathers : and that the tide of custom and 
influence shall be strong enough to bear the strangers 
who arrive among them in willing crowds to God's 
house ; and never to fear if it be inconvenient to 
ride, but that it will be easy, as with their fathers, 
to walk, their two or three or four miles to public 
worship. 



286 THE INTERVAL FOR PAINS 

Carry the message down the Weweantic — to all 
its establishments and bordering farms — to the Poles , 
with its solid and durable walls, as if it had a figure 
in itself of the solid foundation of prosperity ; and 
which, as it meets the eye from the neighboring hills, 
must have a thousand times awakened your desire 
that its youthful population might be blessed with 
all the blessings of God's house.. Beautiful spot ! 
How quiet it lies embosomed by the gentle hills, 
amidst unusual beauties of land and water, of stream 
and tide ! As you look down upon it from Lincoln's 
hill, to-night, and feast your eye with its quiet and 
varied beauty, bear my message on your heart ; and 
in due time carry it on your lip to those wandering 
youth, and tell them that life cannot be well begun, 
nor advanced, nor ended, save "fast by the oracles 
of God," and urge them to God's house. 

You may do a word at the Centre. I will give 
these two villages the credit of a large attendance 
on public worship. But shall I, or they, or you, be 
satisfied with this, Avhile a few — nay, if we will 
count faithfully, many — are living in neglect, at the 
very doors, almost, of God's house? Call, then, the 
absentees of the Centre — if, peradventure, they may 
learn the peculiar guilt of those who, at the very 
door of the sanctuary, forsake it ! 

But you must ascend the Wankinco, to that vil- 
lage, which, of a Sabbath, ever since I first saw it, 
has met my eye as the very image of repose. How 
quietly it sits above the still and beautiful waters — 
seeming so near that we might hear every stir of its 
population, and yet not a hum is heard — as if it were 
intended as the very image of the Sabbath rest ! 



IN BEHALF OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 287 

There she sits, beside her quiet waters, her still 
machinery, with all her busy hands released from 
toil, hearing every stroke of the Sabbath bell, and 
seeing, from her gentle height, the whole crowd as 
they enter our temple — at the very spot from whence 
our holy and beautiful house shows itself most sig- 
nally, a palace built for God. There she sits in our 
sight, too, every time we come hither, as if her very 
walls and waters rebuked our indifference to the 
coming with us of her people, and their indifference 
to worship our fathers' God. Will you do my mes- 
sage to them, and ask them, for once at least, to 
come hither — all, with the few who do come — and 
to hear our appeal for public worship, as the founda- 
tion and security of their morals and their piety, for 
time and eternity. Tell them rather to come always^ 
their easy way to God's holy temple ; to obey every 
morning the Sabbath-bell, and to hasten with the 
multitude that keep holy-day. 

And lastly, I send word to Agawam ; to that new 
and beautiful village, which bears that ancient name 
of the whole eastern portion of our town ; a message 
worthy to be welcomed by those who have prospered 
amidst the general adversity. Ask them, if they 
have rendered according to the mercies they have 
received ! Ask them, if they are aware how much 
of their prosperity has been drawn from the hill of 
Zion ; and if they have thought how soon morality 
and prosperity may decay, if they forsake the living 
waters of the temple ? Tell them to join the pro- 
cession of wayfarers which they see coming every 
Sabbath morning from still remoter parts of Agawam, 
and to flow in it to public worship. Yes, and go 



288 INTERVAL FOR PAINS IN BEHALF OF WORSHIP. 

farther still, down to the very shores which our 
beautiful bay indents, and as you feast your eyes 
again and again upon the broad expanse, and upon 
the islands and main which seem but to skim its 
surface, and yet forming its everlasting boundaries j 
upon the whole scenery of islets and land-points, 
bordering and mixing with the waters ; of light and 
shade, of object and reflection, of hill and forest 
peering to the sky, and visible in the deeps below ; 
of birds sailing through the air, and fishes leaping 
from the sea ; — ask the neglecters of public worship, 
if you find them, if they can forbear to join the 
harmony of praise ; to pay their worship in God's 
holy temple. 

And there, and elsewhere — when you find those 
who have inherited their neglect from a neglectful 
parentage, who neither intend nor expect to come, 
and whom the public have left to their inherited 
neglect — carry a special and earnest message. Go 
into the highways, and hedges, and compel them to 
come. Go, beloved hearers, with my message — all 
abroad — and bring a willing and glad people to the 
house of God. Go — praying that you may return 
hither again and again with thronging multitudes. 
You may go fearless — confident — on my kind and 
holy errand. There is nothing offensive, nothing 
repulsive, in the message that we send ; but every 
thing kind and winning. Go, then, with good 
courage, and bring a willing and glad people to the 
house of God; each saying, as they come, "I was 
glad when they said unto me, Let us go unto the 
house of the Lord. Our feet shall stand within thy 
gates, O Jerusalem. 77 



SERMON XVI. 



SEPTEMBER 23, 1838. 



THE PUBLTC HEARING: ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC 
WORSHIP. 



Psalm 122 : 2—5. 

Our feet shall stand within thy gates, Jerusalem. Jerusa- 
lem is builded as a city that is compact together; whither the 
tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the testimony of Israel, 
to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. For there are set 
thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house of David. 

I have not made up my mind as to the course to 
be pursued this day, without some hesitation. The 
gloom of the morning, detaining many from God's 
house who were desirous to meet the call given last 
Lord's day, and the deep anxiety for the fate of our 
beloved young men, which has already marked our 
prayers,^ seeming to unfit us for the cheerful appeal 
which I intended to make, have disposed me to 
postpone, if possible, to a fitter time, the obligation I 

* Reported by their consort as last seen in a gale of wind, 
drifting direct upon a reef off Cape Hatteras. 

25 



290 THE public hearing: 

have imposed on myself. And I would do so, but 
that I see, not without a deep interest, so many 
holding me to my promise. Many are here who 
expect me to fulfil it ; and I will not draw back. It 
may be that the cause will be better served, by the 
aid of this smaller assembly, than by the crowd 
which I essayed to summon around me this morning. 
Gideon's army was too strong; and by the little 
band would God save his people. May those who 
have come to-day to honor and encourage public 
worship, prove more powerful in aiding this divine 
institution, than any crowd which ever assembled on 
this consecrated ground! 

The last Sabbath was an interval ; of which I 
deeply felt the need, and which I attempted to em- 
ploy so as to secure for this people the blessings of 
the sanctuary. What could I do but ask your 
prayers and your pains, that God's house might be 
exalted in the eyes of all the people, and that all the 
people might be blessed out of Zion. 

And now what say you ? Will you worship God 
in the house of prayer for all people ? Will you say 
to all around you, " Let us go up to the house of the 
Lord?" Will you worship the Father, personally, 
publicly, now and for ever, in spirit and in truth ? 
The question is not between me and you — between 
me and the people who should move one another, 
and be moved to the house of prayer. It is between 
God and you ; between God and the people. He 
claims your worship ; God, your Creator, Benefactor, 
Redeemer. Beware how you deny his claim, urged 
and increased upon all ages and all generations, even 
until now. 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 291 

Yes. On the finished creation the Sabbath arose, 



hallowed by the Creator, as he rested from his works; 
amidst the songs of the morning stars, and the shouts 
of joy from all the sons of God ; and it smiled over 
the altar and the sacrifice of Abel. As the mists 
arose from the retiring waters of the flood, the Sab- 
bath's sun, we must suppose, spread the bow of the 
covenant in the cloud, over the first altar of Noah in 
the new world. In the desolate wilderness of Sinai, 
the altar was invested with the cherubim and the 
cloud of glory, as the centre of public worship. On 
Mount Zion, the temple arose, " exceeding magnif- 
ical," the seat of worship for Israel, and for the 
strangers of all nations. And lastly, in "the end of 
the world," Jesus, the Son of God, appeared, putting 
away sin by the sacrifice of himself — a sinless Priest, 
needing for himself no offering ; and offering himself, 
once for all, for countless men; opening the house of 
prayer for all people, and pouring out his Spirit upon 
all flesh. And, uniting the urgency of all ages, the 
Father has called you to his house, and requires you 
to worship Him now and for ever, in spirit and in 
truth ; that you may be transformed into his image, 
and, leaving the inheritance of his house to your 
children and your children's children, may pass to 
worship in the eternal temple. 

Let me begin as if I already had your full and 
fixed determination, assured that you will accom- 
pany me with a willing and joyful heart, while I 
attempt to unfold the special advantages of public 
worship, as an institution for promoting the morals 
and piety of the people. 



292 THE public hearing: 

1. Public worship is peculiarly the oracle of truth; 
the essential instrument of the morals and piety of 
the people. Such has the ordinance been, in every 
stage of its progress, to its present glory. Abel's 
sacrifice — the first recorded compliance with "the 
ordinances of divine service " — was a visible doctrine 
— a tongue of truth — at which Cain's countenance 
fell, and which "still speaketh" its saving lesson 
to all believers. Noah's sacrifice : — hallowing, we 
must suppose, the first Sabbath of the new world, 
and crowned with the bow of the covenant, which 
still spans the earth — sent forth the tradition of the 
great truths of religion, wide as the world, and, 
though perverted, enduring through all ages. The 
Tabernacle in the wilderness, and the Temple on 
Mount Zion, were the testimony of Israel. 

And such is now the ordinance of public worship : 
worthy the prophetic urgency, i l Come ye, and let us 
go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of 
the God of Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways; 
. . . for out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the 
word of the Lord from Jerusalem." If, that they 
may overspread the world, the " ordinances of divine 
service" have been simplified, they are not less an 
oracle of truth, than the rites of the ancient church. 
Public worship has never been so far corrupted as 
utterly to darken and silence this oracle. An un- 
known language, and false objects of worship, did 
not enable the papacy to hide all the truth from the 
minds of men. The very cross which the people 
adored — the very prayers in an unknown tongue, 
which they addressed promiscuously to man and 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 293 

God — the very host before which they bowed, and 
the very churches in which they worshipped, pre- 
served the great truths of religion, ever gleaming 
amidst the darkest ages, as lights never utterly put 
out, and breaking forth, at length, in full glory, at the 
Reformation. 

Even so, now, in Protestant Christendom, public 
worship, at its worst estate, fails not altogether of its 
character as an oracle of truth — is no where utterly 
darkened or silenced. Even heresy itself is at fault, 
amidst the impulses and checks, the forms, and rites, 
and claims of this great public institution. The 
office of instruction, even, save at the very points of 
discussion, does not fail to occupy itself, in some low 
degree, with the doctrines which it formally re- 
nounces; and the hearer goes away, wondering at 
the truth he has heard from the very lips of error. 
But this tendency to right instruction, where wrong 
is intended, aside — how difficult is it to make public 
worship otherwise than an oracle of truth 1 If the 
preacher's lips will not, the "ordinances of divine 
service " will, keep knowledge. If the pulpit pro- 
claim a new gospel, the prayers and praises, whether 
flowing in the course of ancient custom, or new- 
made, cannot, dare not, depart from the old and the 
true — so difficult is it for human conscience to frame 
false doctrine into the forms of worship ; to address 
untruth to the Author of all truth ; to reflect dark- 
ness, when looking upward to the very Sun itself! 
Strange to tell, the psalms and hymns of truth are 
sung in the very temples of error ; the choir refuses 
to echo the notes of the pulpit, and the sweet singers 
25* 



294 THE PUBLIC HEARING : 

of Israel chant in loud harmony what the preacher 
has denied ! Strange to hear ! from the pulpit first, 
that all men, of all characters, walking in all paths, 
shall sit down for ever in the light of the throne of 
God and of the Lamb : then from the choir, — 

"0, for a closer walk with God, 
A calm and heavenly frame; 
A light to shine upon the road 
That leads me to the Lamb."* 

But if public worship be an oracle of truth, which 
error cannot utterly darken and silence, how pecu- 
liarly is it when all its services harmonize — when 
the priest's lips keep knowledge, and the people 
receive the law at his mouth, and many are turned 
to righteousness — amidst the true forms of prayer 
and praise, passed down through the lips of the 
Redeemer, from the ancient temple into the house of 
prayer for all people. "And when they had sung 
an hymn, they went unto the mount of Olives."' 
The notes of the last act of social worship, mider 
the old dispensation, were upon the emblems of all 
the glories of the new ; and had scarce died away 
when the vail of the temple was rent, and the mercy- 
seat revealed, and the all-sufficient Redeemer, offer- 
ing himself, once for all, appeared, bringing in an 
everlasting righteousness, and shedding down the 
Holy Ghost in the house of prayer for all people : 
thenceforth an oracle of truth for the whole earth ; 
in the true gospel and in the forms of prayer and 
praise. 

* See the Universalist Hymn Book. 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 295 

We should take notice, before we close this article, 
of the advantage under which the truth is declared 
in the forms of worship, viz., in a condition to be true, 
i. e., in practicable forms, instead of being separated 
into the impracticable notions which men are wont 
to substitute for truth. A gospel to be received 
and obeyed; a form of worship is the best creed; 
holding the true doctrines inwoven in the words of 
prayer and praise ; and rejecting any separate doc- 
trine or system of doctrines, which cannot be thus 
inwoven. The doctrines combined in every right 
form of prayer may seem the same, after we have 
separated them into our notions, or followed them 
into our conclusions; but they are no longer the 
same — they are different, they are false — if they 
refuse to be inwoven into the web of prayer and 
praise; if they embarrass or hinder the words of 
worship, in which God has given them to man. 
The Lord's prayer — what an oracle of truth ! what 
a practicable creed on the great articles of human 
liberty and divine sovereignty — God's supremacy 
and man's activity — God's omnipotence and man's 
power — the mystery and the controversy of all ages ; 
both true, in the practicable form of the Lord's prayer; 
each untrue, as soon as it is drawn forth and sepa- 
rated from the prayer in which it is inwoven ; the 
moment it stands forth separate, and encumbered 
with conclusions which forbid the simple prayer in 
which they are both combined, in mysterious, in 
perfect consistency. Man's liberty ! how complete, 
how full, how beyond all that philosophy can claim, 
in the acknowledgment of dependence, in the seeking 



296 THE public hearing: 

to a Father, in the Lord's prayer ! God's sovereign- 
ty — how complete and full, with nothing that mars 
the freedom or the condition of man, in the words, 
" Our Father," proffered by Heaven for our use, and 
in the house of prayer for all people ! God supreme 
— but only in agreement with the freedom of man ; 
man free — but only according to the supremacy of 
God. God's work in man, by man; man's work for 
himself, from and with God — how revealed in the 
Lord's prayer ! God's work in man, not after the 
manner of the lever, or the saw, or the animal, but 
after the manner of the living, responsible, believing 
soul, in the utterance of the Lord's prayer ! Man's 
work for himself, not as an atheist, but as God's 
highest work, capable of the highest works by faith, 
after the manner of the Lord's prayer ! 

2. Public worship is a conspicuous institution. The 
ancient temple was expressly ordered to secure the 
notice of the chosen tribes, and of all lands. The 
house to be builded for the Lord must be " exceeding 
magnificat, of fame and of glory throughout all 
countries." Its buildings, half a mile in circumfer- 
ence ; its elevation, five hundred feet, on the hill of 
Zion; its nine gates, plated with gold and silver, 
and Corinthian brass ; its dome, covered with pure 
gold, and shining like the sun; its ordinances of 
divine service ; and the crowds ascending to worship, 
especially, three times a year, were designed to 
attract and secure notice ; according to that noble 
exultation — " Great is the Lord, and greatly to be 
praised in the city of our God, in the mountain of 
his holiness. Beautiful for situation, the joy of the 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 297 

whole earth, is Mount Zion, on the sides of the north, 
the city of the great King. God is known in her 
palaces for a refuge" 

Nor in vain. How extensive and how deep was 
the impression made by this conspicuous institution, 
even when the temple was destroyed, and the people 
carried captive. Jerusalem, as she had been, in her 
solemn feasts, rose in the captives' eye, as they sat 
and wept by the rivers of Babylon, when they 
remembered Zion ; when they hung their harps upon 
the willows, and chanted only the sad dirge — " How 
shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange land? If 
I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand forget 
her cunning." There, too, the youthful captives, 
who had seen but the last fading glories of the tem- 
ple, cherished in their young hearts the visions of 
their childhood, and shed forth from their maturity 
and their age the light of Zion upon "all people, 
tongues and languages." Nebuchadnezzar wel- 
comed it, when his reason came to him, among the 
beasts of the field, and reflected it wide as his 
dominions. Belshazzar saw it in dismay, when he 
had polluted the vessels of the temple ; and Darius 
with gladness, in the face of the living prophet 
coming up from the den of lions ; and, like Nebu- 
chadnezzar, shed forth the light of the temple through 
every dominion of his kingdom. 

Not less conspicuous is the Christian sanctuary, 
shining over all people in greater glory than the 
temple on Mount Zion ; wherever, according to his 
institution, men worship the Father in spirit and in 
truth : 



298 THE PUBLIC HEARING I 

" Where'er the saints assemble now, 
There is a house for God." 

A house for public worship, with so much of 
beauty and grandeur as befits the condition of the 
people, is a public spectacle, announcing and making 
conspicuous the ordinances of divine service — invit- 
ing, nay, compelling public attention to its holy and 
transforming communications and formulas. The 
house, the bell, the multitude thronging to keep holy- 
day, the ordinance itself, furnish the most remarkable 
scenery in all Christian communities; prompting 
infancy to ask, " What mean ye by these services?" 
requiring of the rising youth the decision, "I am 
the Lord's ; " fixing the eye and the thought of 
busiest men, and cheering and gladdening even the 
dim eye of old age. "God is known in her palaces 
for a refuge." 

Yes, and the very house ! — the closed and silent 
house — where those services have been, and where 
they are to be again, in long succession — the closed 
and silent house ! Is it fancy, or is it not the fact, 
that the glory which gilds the sanctuary on the 
Sabbath, never leaves it during the week? Does 
not the living and transforming doctrine shine forth 
the whole week-time, from every window, and every 
pillar, and every wall of that sacred edifice, whence 
it glows upon the public eye, in every Sabbath ser- 
vice? Surely to those who welcome its healing 
light, the glory never ceases on the heights of Zion. 
To them, the sanctuary is like no other structure ; 
but as the light of life amidst the darkness of the 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 299 

world. Yes, and to the dim, and reluctant, and 
closing eye, the light seen in the sanctuary never 
goes out. When the services are over, and the crowd 
is retired from the holy place, and from the glory 
which filled it, and the doors are closed, and the 
people seem as men benighted in a chosen darkness, 
the light still glows on the deserted heights of Zion, 
and piercing the gloom, reaches every distant habita- 
tion, and all the scattered members of that dispersed 
assembly.. Say, when day after day the sanctuary 
remains dark — is it dark ? or does it not glow still 
upon its willing or unwilling attendants 1 When it 
remains silent — is it silent? or does it not still cry 
aloud, " The fear of the Lord, that is wisdom, and 
to depart from evil, that is understanding. If thou 
be wise, thou shalt be wise for thyself; but if thou 
scornest, thou alone shalt bear it." 

Nay, so conspicuous is public worship, that its 
light is not hid from the most steadfast absentees. 
Sad to tell, there are, every where, multitudes who 
are statedly absent from the lessons and the worship 
of the sanctuary. But which of all those guilty 
families has never seen the house of prayer standing 
open for all people ? What child, most untaught, or 
most basely taught in all those unnatural families, 
that has not seen the Lord's house, or heard the 
Sabbath bell, or seen the coming and returning 
crowd, and has not asked, and been told, the high 
purpose of public worship ? Who, even of the 
guiltiest absentees, wandering every Sabbath, no 
matter where, doing no matter what, is there, whose 
conscience does not smite him, and whose heart does 



300 THE PUBLIC hearing: 

not sink within him, as the light glares on the eye 
that would, but cannot be blind ? as the sound cuts 
the ear that would, but cannot be deaf? Nay, 
more — the unavoidable question of the officer of the 
sanctuary — was there ever man or family within the 
range of public worship, within the court of the great 
temple of all nations, so ignorant of its existence, and 
its services, and its officers, as not to know where to 
send or whom to call for, in those seasons of distress 
and sorrow, when human nature longs irrepressibly 
for religious services ? when families crave that their 
own guilty houses may be ordered after the temple of 
the living God ? at their sick beds, and over their dead ; 
giving their witness that wherever public worship 
prevails, according to God's ordinance, among a 
neglectful and atheistical people, there is never but a 
forced and willing ignorance of the divine messages 
to mankind. Say — did you ever find the ungodly 
man ; the merest atheist ; the veriest brute ; the man 
who seemed so destitute of conscience as not to be a 
man; — did you ever find such a man, who, in his 
overwhelming calamity, or sickness, or bereavement, 
or alarm, did not turn his face towards Zion ? who 
did not look towards the light of God's sanctuary, 
ever conspicuous on the chosen darkness of his erring 
path? 

3. Public worship is a central institution, sustain- 
ing and invigorating every other for the moral and 
religious benefit of man. 

There is no need to undervalue any other means 
of human welfare in order to exalt public worship ; 
this is its best praise — not that it supersedes any 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 301 

other — but that it sustains and invigorates every 
other. Wherever the grass grows, or the willows 
thrive beside all the lesser waters, they may all 
be traced to this fountain-head — to its full and ever 
flowing water courses. The streams of divine bless- 
ing are more than we can number, but they are all 
supplied from the fulness of the sanctuary. " All 
my springs are in thee." 

Is it, for instance, the family, which, by the small- 
ness of its compass, the nearness of its inmates, the 
continued presence of its priesthood, the sweetness of 
its angel-ministry, and the timeliness of its opportu- 
nity — is it the family which is to be regarded as the 
indispensable means of blessing mankind 1 Yes, it 
is; and you cannot over-state the influence of the 
family upon the next and successive generations ; 
but it is chiefly and peculiarly of families ' ' blessed 
out of Zion," that " see the good of Jerusalem ah the 
days of their life." The resolution of Hezekiah in 
view of the family, drew its supply and strength 
from the Lord's house : " The father to the children 
shall declare thy truth. The Lord was ready to 
save me ; therefore will we sing my songs to the 
stringed instruments all ' the days of our life in the 
house of the Lord." And when the temple was 
opened for all nations, it was with the assurance, 
" The promise is unto you and to your children." 
Public worship holds families in a condition to im- 
prove by all their domestic advantages, its floods 
settling down to the very roots of society. If you 
would give the family free scope and full power ; if 
you would have the vine fruitful beside every house, 
26 



302 THE PUBLIC HEARING : 

and the olive plants around every table, you must 
see that they are blessed out of Zion. 

Or do you rely upon the intercourse of man with 
man, the saying of neighbor to neighbor, and brother 
to brother, Know the Lord 1 You are right ; — this 
inter-action of society within itself is indispensable to 
the full diffusion of God's word among men, for the 
full influence of the new covenant • but it must take 
its impulse, and its guidance, and its power, from 
the sanctuary ; it must be with the influence of 
public worship; neighbor saying to neighbor, and 
brother to brother, u Let us go up to the mountain of 
the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, for he 
will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his 
paths." Thus may you sanctify every field, and 
manufactory, and house, and ship, saying one to 
another, " Know the Lord, until all shall know him 
from the least to the greatest." 

Or again, do you rely upon the discipline of life ? 
upon the thousand influences of Providence; the 
millions, like the hairs of the head, at every moment, 
on every path of life? You are right. They only 
who welcome God's daily discipline — the discipline 
of prosperity, and the discipline of adversity — of 
every remarkable and every minute visitation, can 
receive the peaceable fruits of righteousness ; but 
whence shall this blessing come, if not from God's 
holy temple? Even so the Psalmist, profiting by 
the rich mercies of the spring and summer, exclaims, 
" Blessed is the man whom thou choosest, and causest 
to approach unto thee, that he may dwell in thy 
courts; we shall be satisfied with the goodness of 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 303 

thy house, even of thy holy temple." Chastened in 
the wilderness of Judah, he drinks from the fountain- 
head of Zion ; " My soul thirsteth for thee ; my flesh 
longeth for thee, in a dry and thirsty land, where no 
water is, to see thy power and thy goodness, so as I 
have seen thee in the sanctuary." From his bed of 
sickness he arose, to say, " I will pay my vows unto 
the Lord, now, in the presence of all his people. I 
will offer to thee the sacrifices of thanksgiving, and 
will call upon the name of the Lord, in the courts of 
the Lord's house, in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem." 
And now, it must be so in the temple opened for all 
nations, by our compassionate High Priest, as saith 
the apostle, " Let us draw near with a true heart, in 
full assurance of faith. Let us hold fast the profes- 
sion of our faith, without wavering. Let us con- 
sider one another, to provoke unto love and good 
works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves 
together" 

Or again, do you rely upon God's word as the 
very sword of the Spirit — as the very fountain-head 
of life? You are right ; they only who receive God's 
word, can be purified and holy; but it is public 
worship that exalts God's word in the eye of all the 
people ; that directs and inclines them to search the 
Scriptures daily ; that establishes the word of God in 
its authority and power, in every family and in every 
closet; that writes it on the door-posts of every 
dwelling, and sets it as frontlets between the eyes, 
and binds it on the palms of the hands ; that sets its 
precepts, and its promises, and its threateniugs, as 
the light on every path of life. 



304 THE PUBLIC HEARING : 

Or again, is it pastoral intercourse which you value 
— the " teaching from house to house," — as the indis- 
pensable means of diffusing the gospel? You are 
right: — the world will never be restored by mere 
pulpit ministrations, without the pervading influence 
of a pure and affectionate private and domestic inter- 
course ; but who shall perform that private work 
like him who magnifies his public office 1 The true 
officer of the sanctuary cannot be a mere man of 
public ministrations ; cannot be separate from all the 
opportunities of private and social influence, — any 
more than there can be fulness and overflowing at 
the fountain-head without the diffusion of the waters 
through all the channels provided for their flow. 
And, on the other hand, incessant visitation, without 
a devoted preparation to the public service — without 
11 giving attendance to reading and to meditation" — 
without study "to be a workman that needeth not 
to be ashamed," must degrade a pastoral progress 
from house to house, to an idle gossip, instead of 
being a Christian teaching. No idler in regard to 
preparation for his public office can make his " pro- 
fiting appear to all," in his private walks. Public 
worship sustains and invigorates pastoral visitation. 

4. Public worship is a permanent institution, afford- 
ing its benefits from year to year, and from age to 
age. 

So it was anciently. The institution, chief in ex- 
cellence, and conspicuousness, and influence, had 
nothing changeful and variable in its character. 
There it remained, from year to year, and from age 
to age, solid as Mount Zion ; enduring and perpetual 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 305 

in its regular and unchanging services ; worthy the 
praise; " Let Mount Zion rejoice, let the daughters 
of Jndah be glad, because of thy judgments. Walk 
about Zion; tell the towers thereof; mark ye well 
her bulwarks, that ye may tell it to the generation 
following. For this God is our God for ever and 
ever; he shall be our guide, even unto death:" 
worthy the declaration, " Those that be planted in 
the house of the Lord, shall nourish in the courts of 
our God. They shall still bring forth fruit, in old 
age; they shall be fat and flourishing." 

So it is now. Public worship abides from year to 
year, and from age to age, — an ever-living fountain, 
an unfailing water-course, by which youthful piety 
may spring as the grass and the willows ; and ma- 
turity and old age may be still bringing forth fruit 
Thus has God provided for the life, and the growth, 
and the fruitfulness of piety ; against a changeful, 
fickle, barren and dead piety, unworthy of the name ! 
What a disadvantage, to mistake the wisdom of 
Heaven, and forsaking its permanent provisions, to 
expect our chief good from temporary and transient 
opportunities ! What a disadvantage, even when 
the decision is sincere, I am the Lord's, if it were 
prompted and cherished by occasional provisions. 
If we would exemplify and extend a permanent and 
fruitful piety, we must welcome the abiding oppor- 
tunity ; " Those that be planted in the house of the 
Lord shall flourish in the courts of our God." Alas ! 
where occasions are chiefly regarded, how likely is 
"goodness" to be as a morning cloud, and as the 
early dew, going away like the influences under 
26* 



306 ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

which it sprung up ! No wonder at the decays we 
see wherever the permanent provisions are disregard- 
ed or set at naught ! 

Here, for to-day, I pause. I did not feel at liberty 
this morning to defer the fulfilment of my promise. 
You will not, however, be surprised that I now pro- 
pose to lay over a part of what I intended to say, 
until the next Sabbath. Indeed, had the opportunity 
been favorable, I should have detained you for 
double the time of our usual service. I renew my 
request of last Sabbath, repeating it in part, for the 
sake of those not then present. 

And now carry out for me the notice to the whole 
people ; and, if possible, bring them with you to hear 
the concluding appeal in behalf of public worship. 
Let us hope that the multitude will come, saying 
one to another, " I was glad when they said unto 
me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord. Our feet 
shall stand within thy gates, O Jerusalem." I must, 
before I close this subject, see this house filled, as I 
have never seen it before, at our Sabbath service. 
At least. I renew the attempt. Through you and by 
you, T renew it on our whole community. 



SERMON XVII. 



SEPTEMBER 30, 1838. 



THE PUBLIC HEARING: ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC 
WORSHIP. 



Psalm 122 : 3, 4, 5. 

Jerusalem is builded as a city that is compact together: 
whither the tribes go up, the tribes of the Lord, unto the tes- 
timony of Israel, to give thanks unto the name of the Lord. 
For there are set thrones of judgment, the thrones of the house 
of David. 

A fortnight ago, I paused in my discourses on 
public worship, to ask your prayers and your pains, 
and requesting a special invitation to the community, 
to meet me the last Sabbath. That Sabbath came, 
under circumstances which inspired us all with such 
gloom and sadness, as seemed to unfit us for the 
cheerful appeal which I had prepared to make. 
The gloom of outward nature served to increase 
our inward gloom, anxious as we were for the fate 
of several of our beloved young men. Nevertheless, 
so many held me to my promise, that I proceeded to 



308 THE public hearing: 

plead in part the cause of public worship ; and dis- 
missed those present with the request, that they 
would do their utmost in giving me such an oppor- 
tunity as I had never had before. And now I meet, 
on this beautiful morning, this large congregation, 
with thanksgiving and courage, yet not satisfied; 
nor can I be, until the multitude come in and crowd 
every aisle — until the public unite in public wor- 
ship ! 

Thankful, however, for what I see to-day, I enter 
upon the work before me heartily ; especially under 
the peculiar mercy which makes us all cheerful this 
morning. The gloom and sadness of the storm are 
passed, and we meet under as bright a sun as ever 
shone — the heavens and the earth glowing in beauty, 
after the new-fallen rain, and the balmy air seeming 
as we breathe it, like a sea of life — right glad that it 
was said unto us, " Let us go unto the house of the 
Lord;" and full of joy and thanksgiving that our 
sons and brothers, who we thought last Sabbath 
were deep buried in the ocean, are with us in the 
sanctuary. Our sons and our brothers, I say ; for 
what father or mother, at the sight of that weather- 
beaten bark — at the good news of the safe return of 
our beloved young men, last Monday morning — 
what brother or sister, did not feel as if their own 
sons and brothers had returned 1 Here, then, let us 
say, with one heart, " We have thought of thy 
loving-kindness in the midst of thy temple. Accord- 
ing unto thy name, so is thy praise unto the ends of 
the earth. Thy right hand, O God, is full of right- 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 309 

I spoke, last Sabbath, of the advantage of public 
worship as the oracle of truth — as a conspicuous, 
central, and permanent institution. Upon these 
views I paused, promising, before the crowd I asked 
for, to proceed still farther to-day, and to urge, with 
all my might, this town, as a town, to honor and 
welcome public worship. 

I return to the consideration of public worship as 
a permanent institution, regarding now its perma- 
nence from age to age. In every respect we inherit 
our chief blessings. The wisdom of Heaven has not 
left us to the ignorance and misery of having every 
thing to discover and invent, to plan and arrange, 
for ourselves. Our blessings are our birthright, to 
be transmitted as an inheritance to the generations 
which shall come after us. We have received public 
worship as the ancient gift of heaven to man, 
handed down to us by a revered ancestry ; and are 
spared the task of discovering new methods for the 
salvation of mankind. Who can tell the religious 
advantage, thus given to early infancy and child- 
hood, prompted thus, from age to age, to ask, " What 
mean ye by these services?" Who can tell the 
religious advantage to the youth, rising into life, 
from age to age, as they are instructed, and urged, 
and guided by the time-honored sanctuary, the 
bequest of the fathers and of all ages 1 Who can 
tell the advantage, to life's latest day, from an insti- 
tution thus endowed with all that is venerable in 
antiquity — with all that is interesting in the history 
of a long descended line ! And, lastly, who can tell 
the advantage of the sentiment of transmission which 



310 THE PUBLIC HEARING : 

it prompts ; in the sense of responsibility to future 
generations ! It is better to us, not merely because 
we receive it from our ancestry, but because we are 
to transmit it to posterity. Sublime thought ! Every 
security we add, every enlargement we make, every 
beauty we unfold, every excellence and ornament 
we restore, will be handed down to our children, 
and our children's children, in long succession, and 
in every multiplication. The church at Plymouth, 
which blessed our fathers two hundred years ago ! 
where is it ? Here it is ! multiplied many fold, in 
the Old Colony itself. It is in every town of Massa- 
chusetts and of New England ; and its spire rises, 
and its Sabbath bell is heard, and its multitude are 
gathering, to keep holy-day, multiplied ten thousand 
fold over our wide America — the heritage of millions 
who were then unborn ! This temple — these tem- 
ples on this forefathers' ground, if we establish or 
restore them on the sure foundation — if we will 
beautify the place of God's sanctuary, and make the 
place of his feet glorious, by truth and fidelity as 
officers and worshippers — where will they be two 
hundred years hence ? Here, no doubt, and in every 
place of their present establishment, millions upon 
millions, in long succession, will arise, erecting more 
beautiful and nobler structures, honoring their 
fathers' God, and receiving their sanctuary services, 
as the best inheritance of a long descended line: 
and the First Church of Plymouth will be the 
temple of hundreds of millions, spreading from ocean 
to ocean, over the fruitful fields, joyful and glad, of 
our now untamed wilderness. Yes; before four 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 311 

hundred years shall have passed, from the time our 
fathers set foot on yonder rock, if we are faithful at 
the point of progress where we stand in the line of 
many generations — midway in the descent of this 
best inheritance — that humble sanctuary, which first 
arose under the covert of the Plymouth hills, shall 
be established as the house of prayer, from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific ! And when the tones of the 
Sabbath bell begin to echo from the hills and head- 
lands, which protected the landing of our fathers, 
they shall not cease their call to prayer and praise, 
their own sweet chime of worship, the live-long day ; 
and the morning tones from the Atlantic shall flow 
on from hamlet to hamlet, from city to city, from 
state to state, until they die away in the evening 
bells of the Pacific ; and the crowd, beginning their 
ascent to the sanctuary of their forefathers, at the 
rock of Plymouth, shall flow onward, and still on- 
ward, and still onward, to that same sanctuary of 
their forefathers, even to the very shores of the 
western ocean — still saying to one another as they go, 
" Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of the 
Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob ; and he will 
teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his paths." 
Shall we not honor such an institution as this, re- 
ceived from our fathers, and to be handed down to 
future generations 1 

5. Public worship is an attractive and winning in- 
stitution, fitted to gather the people within the scope 
of its benefits. 

Think not, that, when the Father seeks his rebel- 
lious children to worship him, his advances must 



312 THE PUBLIC hearing: 

needs be repulsive — must arouse disgust and op- 
position. Be sure that the wisdom and kindness 
of Heaven will meet even rebellious man in winning 
and attractive forms. So it was anciently. So it is 
marvellously now. 

I do not forget what terrible truths glare from the 
sanctuary, burning, at length, as an oven, the proud 
and all that do wickedly ; but those truths rise first 
upon the eye, as the healing light of the morning. 
The doctrines which doom and destroy the deter- 
mined and final rebel, are the same which restore 
and save those who fear the Lord. The fire that 
consumes, is blended with the light which heals. 
Can any thing be conceived, more winning and 
attractive, than public worship — than the messages 
of forgiveness and renewal, of joy and peace, present 
and eternal — above all, than the forms of worship, 
of repentance, and faith, and hope, of prayer and 
praise — awaiting for their answer only the accept- 
ance of the worshipper ! Streams of loving-kindness 
from the Fountain of all good, that the people 
maybe " buoyed up and moved on that returning 
flood!" 

Yes; and what circumstances aid the essential 
attractions of God's sanctuary ! What think you of 
music ? Did not God appoint music for the sanctu- 
ary, that he might attract and win men to its lessons 
and its forms? Did he not require a chief singer, 
and choice instruments, and well- trained and Avell- 
tuned voices, that he might win men to hear his 
word, and to worship him in spirit and in truth? 
Let not the minister frown, if men seem to like the 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 313 

singing better than the sermon or the prayers ; let 
him rejoice rather, that they have yielded thus far 
to the attractions which God has given to public 
worship ; and employ, with all fidelity, and earnest- 
ness, and skill, his office as pastor and teacher, 
profiting by the advantage, which, according to the 
prophecy, music gives in the " work of the ministry:" 
" They have seen thy goings, O God ; even the 
goings of my God, my King, in the sanctuary. The 
singers went before, the players on instruments fol- 
lowed after : among them were the damsels playing 
with timbrels. Bless ye God in the congregations ; 
even the Lord from the fountains of Israel." * And, 
without enlarging on this article, how prepared is 
man to be attracted and won by public worship ! 
"It is turned as clay to the seal; it fitteth as a 
garment." When the Sun of righteousness glows 
on the Sabbath from God's temple, it is on man 
at rest, cheerful and gladdened by repose. The 
invitations of the gospel, the forms of worship, in all 
their loving-kindness, the sweet harmony in which 
they floAV, meet the crowds on the mountain of the 
Lord, in the house of the God of Jacob, in the 
condition of all others best fitted to be attracted and 
won. How attractive and winning was it, in the 
best days of the ancient service, when the song of 
ascent acknowledged the mutual influence, which 
brought and bound the ascending crowds; each 
joining in the sacred strain, "I was glad when they 
said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the Lord." 



* Compare Ephesians 4, and Psalm 68. 

27 



314 THE public hearing: 

How attractive and winning it w r ill be in the glories 
of the last days ! — the influence of man on man, 
crowding the temple of all nations, and filling the 
world with righteousness and peace ! Would that 
the officers and inmates of God's sanctuary knew 
their power ! — that they knew how gladly a universal 
urgency to public worship would be received through 
the u'ide community I — that they would renew their 
kind, gentle, powerful persuasion, " Let us go," and 
never cease, until the people as the people — the public 
as the public — gladly flock to the sanctuary of their 
God, to public worship ! 

6. Public worship is vigorous and efficient, capable 
of the most rapid and thorough effects upon the 
people. 

God has not given to any moral means an abso- 
lute power. His gifts are committed, in a sense, to 
the acceptance and use of man, and may fail of their 
design, if man refuse or abuse them. So it was with 
the first ordinance of religion : "If thou doest well, 
shalt thou not be accepted, and if not, then sin lieth 
at the door." So it was with the tabernacle in the 
wilderness. How soon the promise, to dwell among 
the children of Israel, as their God, was followed by 
the oath, " They shall not enter into my rest ! " So 
it was in the first temple. When they clave to the 
God of their fathers, the divine favor compassed 
them as a shield; but in their pride and unbelief, 
they were cast off among the heathen, whose ways 
they had chosen. And in the second temple — to 
those that feared his name, the Sun of righteousness 
arose with healing in his wings ; but to the proud 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 315 

and the wicked doers, it was a consuming fire. I 
shall not claim of the Christian sanctuary, that it is 
more perfect in its place, than the preliminary insti- 
tution ; or than itself, when it was first opened in its 
glory. As of Him who opened the house of prayer 
for all people, it is enough to say, "To as many as 
receive it, to them it giveth power to become the 
sons of God." Under this limitation, which must 
belong to every moral means, we may assert, that 
public worship is vigorous and efficient ; the peculiar 
means for energy and effect in promoting the morals 
and piety of the people. 

Think not that an attractive institution must needs 
be fitted only or chiefly to prepare for a more vigor- 
ous instrumentality; or that a permanent one has 
its advantage only in securing and perfecting what 
must begin under novel and changing measures. 
On the other hand, public worship has all the con- 
ceivable elements of power. It appeals to the deep- 
est and most active principles of the human mind, 
in the widest extent, in the most constant repetition. 
It requires immediate conformity to its transforming 
forms — immediate obedience to its commands — and 
immediate acceptance of its aiding Spirit, its al- 
mighty power. 

That the gospel is to have success, by means of 
public worship, as the great social means, is abun- 
dantly manifest, from the prophecies which regard 
its most glorious triumphs. Is not Psalm 87 spoken 
of Christ, and of the temple he opened for all na- 
tions, when it says, "Of Zion it shall be said, This 
and that man was born in her: the Lord shall 



316 THE public hearing: 

count, when he writeth up the people, that this man 
was born there." The prophecy of Joel, fulfilled on 
the day of Pentecost, was a prophecy of efficiency and 
power upon the temple thenceforward opened for all 
nations : " And it shall come to pass, that whosoever 
shall call on the name of the Lord, shall he deliv- 
ered: for in Mount Zion shall be deliverance, and 
in Jerusalem, as the Lord hath, said." Isaiah 2 
shows many people attracted, and won, and taught, 
and subdued by this vigorous and efficient institu- 
tion ; and Isaiah 56, closing up the beautiful invita- 
tions of the preceding chapter, presents the strangers 
of all nations gathering to the house of prayer 
opened for them, and keeping God's Sabbaths, 
yielding in this ordinance to his word, prospering in 
that whereto it was sent, in its quiet but mighty 
power ; as the snow and the rain from heaven cause 
the earth to bring forth, and bud, and yield its 
increase. 

There is great instruction in the scriptural figures 
employed to illustrate the power of God's word and 
ordinances, and peculiarly of public worship. The 
mightiest powers of nature, and yet the most quiet 
and imperceptible, are employed to show the energy 
of this great institution. They are permanent — 
they are gentle — manifest only in their effects — 
working from year to year, and from age to age, in 
the stillness of almightiness. How quiet, how gentle, 
is the old ordinance of public worship, but how 
powerful in its simple and gentle antiquity ! The 
sun and the rain — how gently they reach the seed, 
and the root ; and the blade, and the flower, and the 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 317 

ripening seed ! God's word in his sanctuary — in 
its ancient gentleness — healing light — a reviving 
dew and rain — prospers in that whereto it has been 
sent, until the ' ' mountains and hills break forth into 
singing, and all the trees of the field clap their 
hands." The pure forms of worship — the forms of 
repentance, and faith, and prayer, and praise, 
are proffered to the mouth and to the minds of 
the prayerless — to the rebellious — while human 
wisdom cavils at the wisdom of Heaven, in offer- 
ing to sinners, what sinners are ready to refuse; 
and in their use — in the use of those words of return 
to the Lord their God, He is as the dew upon them, 
and they " grow as the lily, and cast forth their roots 
as Lebanon !" 

Yes; public worship, old as it is, attractive as 
it is, gentle as it is, like the sun and the rain, 
is as powerful as in the newness and vigor of its 
youth. O that men would yield to the wisdom of 
Heaven ! — that they would look for power, where 
it belongs, in the very ordinances of Heaven ! — that 
they would work with the energy of Heaven ! — 
that they would expect vigor and efficiency — the 
greatest power — where God, in all ages, has be- 
stowed it — under the light of the sun, and the rains, 
and the dews, from the firmament above, and beside 
the water-courses, which are yet to fill the earth 
with righteousness and peace ! 

Strange, that such an institution — so vigorous 
and efficient — so commended by prophecy and his- 
tory — so honored in the inspired visions of the Chris- 
tian church — should so nearly have come to be 
27* 



318 THE PUBLIC HEARING \ 

regarded as an inefficient institution !— that the 
house of God — the house of prayer for all nations — 
should not be the place, and the Sabbath the day, 
looked to for immediate and large success ! Strange, 
that the expectation of ministers, and churches, and 
people, should rest for vigor and efficiency upon 
something occasional, as if it were more powerful 
than this permanent institution ; upon something new, 
as if it were more powerful than this ancient institu- 
tion ; upon some noisy weakness, as if it were more 
powerful than the calm and quiet energy of the 
ordinances of Heaven ; upon the lights which man 
can kindle, and the waters which he can shed forth, 
as if the lanterns and waterpots of men were more 
powerful than the sun and the rain of the Almighty ! 
Strange — in an age where power has been hoped for 
— that expectation should have looked every where 
else but here ; every where else but upon that insti- 
tution which is set as a sun, and a fountain-head of 
blessing ! Strange — but less strange — that minds 
suddenly awaking to a religious earnestness, should 
look every where else for aid but to the house of 
prayer opened for all people, and be found waiting 
months and years, as has been often the case, for 
times and places of vigor and efficiency ! But it is 
not strange, when public expectation has been long 
diverted, and the sanctuary, long considered an 
inefficient ordinance, if on that account it should 
become inefficient — awaiting its due exaltation in the 
minds of men, before it shall prove its power. 

7. Public worship has still further advantage, as 
an intermitted institution ; because it occupies but a 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 319 

part of fifty-two days, and leaves three hundred 
vacant of its services. 

It is not intended here to limit public religious 
services to the Sabbath. There is, no doubt, a 
propriety in public worship on other days. Never- 
theless, for the most part the other days were 
designed to be, and must and will be, left to the 
ordinary employments of life. " Six days shalt thou 
labor and do all thy work." This necessary, this 
heaven-appointed vacancy from public worship, is 
one of the advantages of the divine institution. 

Yes, when the doors of the sanctuary close on the 
departing crowd, to be opened not again until 
another seven days, the religious opportunity does 
not pass away, but is varied, to suit the purpose for 
which it has been given. The words of instruction 
— of return to God — the tones of prayer and praise — 
have indeed ceased, but they have sunken deep into 
the memory, there to remain during the intermission 
of the ordinances of divine service — the very interval 
needful for their influence in transforming the soul — 
in moulding the heart and character ; the very inter- 
val for personal meditation and prayer — for personal 
conflict and victory, after the method of the sanctu- 
ary. For what say those closing doors, but, " Enter 
into thy closet, and pray to thy Father, which is 
in secret." " Blessed is the man whose delight is in 
the law of the Lord, and in his law doth he meditate, 
day and night." " God is faithful, who will not 
suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able, but 
will with the temptation make a way of escape, that 
ye may be able to bear it." 



320 THE PUBLIC hearing: 

Blessed institution ! as vigorous, as efficient in its 
absence as in its presence ! in what it leaves undone, 
as in what it does ! by its intervals, not less than by 
its services ! by means of the quietude of the closet 
— by means of the conflict and victory in the house, 
and in the field, and in the road — to which it leaves 
the worshipper, employing the lessons and the 
methods of his public opportunity ! In the field, by 
the road, at the market-place, at home, in the closet, 
on the bed — in all the conditions of the six days, 
when we are doing "all our work" — the word of 
God proves itself " quick and powerful, sharper than 
a two-edged sword, discerning the thoughts and 
intents of the heart." In the beautiful figures of the 
Scriptures, it is when the floods of the sanctuary 
settle down to the very roots of society, that they are 
taken up by every fibre and carried up to every leaf 
and flower, and to the growing and perfecting fruit. 

8. I add, most briefly : Public worship is a divine 
ordinance; and commands our welcome and our 
cooperation by an absolute wisdom and authority. 

Every plan of man fails of these absolute claims. 
Tried, they may fail — may worse than fail ; and they 
have no absolute and decided claims on the coopera- 
tion of men. This can never fail those who duly 
employ it ; and every effort to extend its influence 
goes with divine authority. It is God's gift to man ; 
it is God's claim of man. God said, " Let it be for a 
light." 

In this article, brief as it is, lies my chief hope. 
It is God's gift to man. It is God's claim of man. 
Who shall dare slight or dishonor it ? If God has 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 321 

appointed it, and will have it " exalted above the 
hills," who shall say him nay? 

I propose this afternoon to close this subject in the 
best manner I can to make a deep and indelible 
impression; to produce a firm and unchangeable 
decision, and a wide and universal reformation ; to 
make Wareham hereafter what it certainly cannot 
now be styled — a township of public worshippers. 

Meanwhile, I wish to lay before you the following 
distinct propositions, which I cannot so well do at 
the close of these discourses. Besides, I hope they 
may become the topics of consideration and consul- 
tation during the intermission. This town never 
met on a more interesting occasion than now, in the 
persons whom I consider as representing it here to- 
day ; and your reflections and consultations for the 
next two hours, may have influence upon every 
individual in it for time and for eternity ; and upon 
all who, for generations to come, may be born in it. 
Yes — for the very pebble cast into the great ocean of 
society moves its most distant waters — your reflec- 
tions and consultations for the next two hours may 
prove a blessing to the whole Commonwealth — to 
this whole nation and the world, now and in all 
coming time. Before we part, I will name but the 
following considerations : 

1. The private exercises of religion are no substi- 
tute for public worship. Rarely, indeed, if ever, 
are they honestly performed as such. Those who 
neglect public worship, may be assumed to be, for 
the most part, neglecters of private worship. But if 
any think otherwise, let them ask, Can the divine 



322 THE PUBLIC HEARING : 

blessing be expected, except in the way of divine 
commands? Or can there be a better method of 
piety than that which infinite wisdom has appointed? 
Can they who discard the way expect a true ap- 
proach to God? or they who refuse the mould, 
expect to be moulded into the heart and character of 
true and spiritual worshippers ? Where necessity or 
duty separate us from the Lord's house, the oppor- 
tunity is then rather varied than lost. The duty or 
necessity furnish a divine discipline in private, and 
prepare the heart to be benefited amidst the recollec- 
tions and anticipations of the sanctuary, and with 
the private study of the word of God. But where 
public worship is neglected, all other channels of 
good are of course overgrown and stopped up. 

2. A casual attendance on public worship is no 
substitute for a regular attendance. Interruptions 
from disability, and indispensable duties, leave the 
interval with all the channels open, which carry out 
the waters of the sanctuary; and those necessarily 
absent may remain as fresh, and green, and fruitful, 
as the most favored plants in the courts of the Lord. 
But voluntary interruptions leave no channels open, 
and the casual return is, how often, with a heart 
closed at the very wells of salvation ! 

3. Public worship should offer accommodations to 
the public. A house of worship which does not 
-accommodate those in moderate and low circum- 
stances, and the transient population — which does 
not provide for the people who ought to worship in 
it-— is not a house of public worship. There is a 
fitness in things. The Sabbath was made for man ; 



ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 323 

and so was public worship. Let it be well consid- 
ered what is wanting in our accommodations for 
public worship. There must be room for the public. 

4. All expectations and propositions are vain, 
without a definite beginning. One deed is worth a 
thousand talks and plans. The coming of the crowd 
I asked for to-day, overflowing this house, would 
have done more to constrain this community than all 
I can say. Your coming in your actual numbers 
will, I trust, do more than the w^ords you came to 
hear. 

And now for deeds: crowd and over-crov)d this 
house ; especially at this delightful season, the pleas- 
antest of the whole year for a universal attendance. 
One small request 1 make ; so small, that you cannot 
deny me. Come, then, and bring the multitude with 
you, for the month of October. What a fine season 
for attending public worship ! neither too hot nor too 
cold. Children, women, the feeble, riding or walk- 
ing, can come to the sanctuary the month of October. 
Our house, always well filled, we can crowd it with- 
out inconvenience, the month of October. No matter 
if our aisles are crowded ; if the very stairs and pulpit 
are crowded, we can bear it without fainting, in the 
month of October. How kindly Providence has 
brought me to make this appeal, at the very best 
season of the year ! at the very best time for a 
month's experiment. Get the tide up, and you can- 
not turn it back. Will this town refuse to comply 
with the request of a public officer, urging them to 
try, for one month, God's institution and their fathers' 
bequest — the gift of ages past to man ! 



324 ADVANTAGES OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

Perhaps He who has put this small request into 
my heart will, if you comply with it, so bless your 
coming, and your calling others to come, that, before 
October shall be passed, the one joyful acclamation 
of the whole people will be, " How amiable are thy 
tabernacles, O Lord God of hosts ! A day in thy 
courts is better than a thousand. For the Lord God 
is a Sun and Shield." Consult and determine 
together : and go forth, resolved to bring other hun- 
dreds with you for the month of October. 



SERMON XVIII. 



SEPTEMBER 30, 1838. 



THE PUBLIC HEARING : SUBSTITUTES DISCARDED. 



Psalm 121 : 1. 

I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh 
my help. 

I closed this morning's services by four sugges- 
tions, which seemed to proceed from my commenda- 
tion of public worship. I prefix to the discourse this 
afternoon other remarks, which seem to me peculiarly 
important at the present day, in order to secure the 
due observance and influence of this conspicuous, 
central, permanent and efficient institution. I have 
no views more carefully considered, and more deeply 
settled, than those which I am about to state ; none 
which seem to me more truly to lie at the very foun- 
dation of all solid and durable religious prosperity. 

1. Neighborhood meetings are no substitute for 
public worship ; for a central, regular, and Sabbatical 
28 



326 THE public hearing: 

institution. These have their use, chiefly, as the 
heralds of public worship; but they must prove a 
hindrance to the extension and growth of Christian- 
ity in proportion as they are received instead of the 
great institution which it is their office to announce, 
if they are approached as the fountain, instead of the 
cups which carry out a foretaste of the waters of the 
sanctuary. "I always attend meeting when there 
is one in our neighborhood," is a miserable apology 
for the neglect of public worship. Neighborhood 
meetings prove themselves to have been inefficient 
and injurious, whenever the Sabbath services of the 
temple are negligently attended. "What has become 
of all the ministers ; we have had no meetings in our 
neighborhood these two months?" said a steadfast 
absentee from all Sabbath worship. "Go to the 
Lord's house on the Sabbath, and you will find out 
where the minister is, and what he is about, and 
what he will set you about," was the right reply. 

2. The vestry is no substitute for the church ; the 
evening and week day services are not to be preferred 
to the regular and Sabbatical institution. The pro- 
vision of places for extra services will prove a hin- 
drance wherever they withdraw the public regard, 
wherever they divert public attention from the great 
arrangement ; — will be found at length not only to 
have produced a neglect and disregard of public 
worship, but to be paralyzed themselves as instru- 
ments of good. The vestry will not long be full 
or efficient, which has usurped the regard that was 
due to the sanctuary. If you pamper the appetite 
between meals, no wonder if there soon be found no 



SUBSTITUTES DISCARDED. 327 

appetite at meal times, and sickliness and apathy 
from day to day. 

3. Temporary and occasional methods for the re- 
formation of the people are no substitutes for the 
permanent ordinance. "Special measures" are not 
to be preferred to the institution which abides from 
year to year and from age to age. Were the plans 
of men as efficient as sometimes in their novelty they 
seem, what a lack were it, if in their very nature 
they were temporary and occasional ; if long inter- 
ruptions were their sure and necessary counterpart. 
What, if for a week or a month they were vigorous 
and efficient, if they were at pause, or powerless, for 
intervening weeks, and months, and years ? Meet- 
ings for a time, in hope of greater effect than from 
the permanent ordinance of public worship ; — special 
efforts, are adopted on a mistaken principle, and 
carry with them their own limitation. In proportion 
as they gain the favor of the public, and are preferred 
to the regular ordinance, they are a substitute of the 
less for the greater — of the temporary to the perma- 
nent — of the sprinkling of a waterpot to the dews 
and rain of heaven — of the casual gully to the deep 
and steady river. 

No change from one temporary plan to another 
can remedy the defect ; no passing from the new to 
the more new, even from the irregular to the regular, 
if still temporary and occasional. The mode which 
seems last to have engrossed the public mind — special 
meetings of effort and prayer at the beginning of each 
year — is no sounder than its numerous and decayed 
predecessors ; is no proper substitute for the deep 
water-courses of the whole year, and of all years. 



328 THE public hearing: 

Neither can multiplication remedy the defect. 
Fifty meetings in succession are still but a temporary 
and occasional substitute. A thousand waterpots 
poured in succession may freshen the ground on 
which they are cast, but are no provision in lieu of 
the tender mercies of the year. 

4. A human plan is no substitute for that which is 
divine. It cannot command the assent, and coopera- 
tion, and obedience of men, and cannot, therefore, 
act with society like that of which it would come 
in place. It cannot be so wise as the plan of infinite 
wisdom ; so good for the present ; so far reaching to 
the future. Whether we perceive it or not, a human 
plan must be less fitted to man, less powerful, less 
sure, than the divine plan. 

True, the substitute may promise well; may show 
better to our feeble judgment ; to our limited fore- 
sight; to our excited fancy; to our vain-heartedness : 
but it cannot be better than the device and appoint- 
ment of the divine wisdom. The substitute may 
show more perceptible plan; more visible machinery; 
and may seem, as we put it in operation, to be 
producing more effect; but it must be that we are 
deceived by the display and bustle of our very 
weakness, whenever we substitute human plans, to 
the unseen, simple, quiet, and yet mighty energy of 
the Divine plan. Ten thousand lanterns ! instead of 
the summer's sun ! — ten thousand waterpots — ten 
thousand times ten thousand water-works — instead 
of the dews, and the rains, and the springs which 
run among the hills and the rivers in their gentle 
and majestic flow ! Lanterns and waterpots ! Mis- 



SUBSTITUTES DISCARDED. 329 

erable substitutes for the sun shining in its gentleness, 
and yet in the greatness of its strength ! — for the 
waters above and below the firmament, in their 
noiseless, ceaseless flow, in dew, and rain, and river, 
bringing forth food out of the earth ! 

5. No plans of men may be admitted to provide 
for a presumed defect in the divine plan. Even 
before experiment, we must conclude that the appa- 
rent defect is a part of the divine intention ; and that 
our provision must hinder the very purpose it pro- 
poses to accomplish. What if it were possible for 
man to provide for the seeming defects in the great 
agencies of nature, — to lengthen out the summer's 
day, even to the morning, in hope to increase and 
mnltiply the blessings of the sunshine? How, if 
dumb nature could speak out, would man be re- 
buked for preventing the coolness of the night, which 
lays the dew all night upon the branch ! A week of 
public worship ! — a month of public worship ! lest 
the Sabbath worship should fail of its purpose; if 
minds discerned the wisdom of the divine arrange- 
ment, would meet the just rebuke, " Let us alone, 
leave us to our solitude ; if haply we may take the 
words of the sanctuary and turn in silence to the 
Lord our God, and may find his favor, as the dew, 
upon us." 

6. The power of heaven in this institution is no 
substitute for the work of man. The institution of 
heaven, made for man, must ivork with man, with 
the expectation, and prayers, and decision, and co- 
operation of officers and people, apprehending and 
welcoming the divine intention. The people are re- 

28* 



330 THE public hearing: 

strained in themselves, even now that the temple is 
opened for all nations ; they prevent the free scope 
and full power of public worship, so far as they look 
for its blessings from some other quarter ; so long as 
they neglect or refuse to receive them from the source 
of " all their springs." Not only must the temple be 
opened for all nations, but it must be exalted in the 
minds of men above the hills. Not only must its 
present inmates flow unto it, but they must urge all 
others until the urgency overspreads and moves the 
community around them, the nation and the world. 

The blessing of the divine institution may be 
missed by both officers and people. Neglect, re- 
jection, must leave either unblessed ; and so may a 
spurious welcome, a presumptuous confidence. So 
it was with the temple. A true trust and approach 
blessed Jehoshaphat, and Asa, and Daniel, and Ne- 
hemiah, and Simeon, and Anna. A spurious wel- 
come, a presumptuous confidence, ruined the last 
and greatest devotees on Mount Zion, at the temple. 
" It is God's own city," said John of Jerusalem, " I 
have no fear it will be taken. It is God's own tem- 
ple." Alas, how soon that over-confident leader and 
his adherents fell victims to their false faith, while 
of the temple there was not left one stone upon 
another ! Public worship is but the method of piety, 
the way of approach to God, the mould for the heart 
and character ; and its blessing will be missed, ex- 
cept by those who receive it in its intention and 
power. 

O that the people would welcome public worship 
according to its purpose — as a method of piety — a 



SUBSTITUTES DISCARDED. 331 

way of approach to God — a mould for the heart and 
character. How then would morals and piety grow 
and prevail. Even on the present scale of fidelity 
and improvement — two thousand coming as one 
thousand now do — rather two thousand coming as 
the one thousand do not come — with full inten- 
tion, and compliance — and flowing back amidst 
all the walks of life — not one of our people left 
untouched by the waters of the sanctuary. What 
blessings must ensue. Could it be long before the 
life-giving power were felt at every root — before 
every leaf were green, and every bough laden with 
fruit? Should we not prove ourselves a moral and 
a Christian people, and pass in succession from the 
house of prayer, to the temple of eternal praise, to 
be for ever refreshed by the river which waters the 
paradise of God. 

And now, what say you 1 My success, in this 
appeal will be, in a great degree, as you aid me. 
The influence of the Lord's house, of which I am 
the officer, is in degree in your hands, subject to 
your will and pleasure. I, as the officer — this insti- 
tution for promoting the welfare of the people — can 
do nothing without you. I and you can do nothing 
without God. But with him, what blessings may 
we not bring upon ourselves and upon this people, 
now, in future generations, and for ever ! 

In some humble sense, I have done my part. Will 
you do yours ? I carried my urgency, last fall, to 
your very doors ; and now, for two months, in this 
holy house ; and, lastly, I have sent willing messen- 
gers through all your bounds, to say, with regard to 



332 THE PUBLIC hearing: 

our present assembly, amidst all the people, " Come 
ye, and let us go up to the house of the Lord," — to 
join with me in utmost efforts to exalt the house of 
the Lord. 

And for what? Not, I assure you, to be satisfied 
with that kind attention which — not all this town, 
not near all — but which an unusual number render 
me this day; nor with that momentary approbation, 
which I am sure I must have won : but to secure 
the decision and the action of approving minds — 
your own attendance on public worship, and your 
earnest efforts to bring the whole people with you. 
for the month of October ? — yes, for the month of 
October, but for that month only, as a glad begin- 
ning — the crowd flowing hereafter in an unceasing 
stream to the house of the Lord, saying one to 
another, in sincerity and truth, He will teach us of 
his ways, and we will walk in his paths. 

Here I might close ; but I will not without two or 
three suppositions, which may aid my urgency for 
the decision and action of this whole town, and 
which grow out of the proved, and known, and 
acknowledged influence of public worship. Alas, 
how imperfectly we receive God's ordinance ! Yet 
may I not boldly exclaim, What interests for time 
and eternity, are secured by it at the low rate, and 
with the scant numbers, of its present welcome ! 
What morality — what piety — what fruits of right- 
eousness, here and hereafter, upon ourselves ! What 
blessings, too, do our thousand worshippers diffuse 
upon the thousand absentees ! Those who attend 
public worship are a city set on an hill, which can- 



SUBSTITUTES DISCARDED. 333 

not be hid. Even the absentees are more moral, 
less lost to a sense of religion, are more touched by- 
its influences, are uneasy and self-condemned in 
their absence, and are even occasionally present — 
approach and are approached by the waters of the 
sanctuary. 

Suppose, now, the worshippers all removed to the 
fertile lands of Illinois, and the absentees left free 
from all the arrangements, and movements, and in- 
fluences of public worship, by which exist whatever 
of good morals and civilization we love to acknow- 
ledge among themselves. Let them see the picture 
which now rises on my eye. The thousand church- 
goers are removed, and are retaining their habits 
and rebuilding God's house on the fertile lands of 
Illinois. The thousand absentees remain, still ab- 
sentees from public worship in the land, which the 
Lord God gave unto their fathers. The stream 
which used to flow by their doors every Sabbath 
morning, and ebb every Sabbath evening, regular as 
the tide, is seen no longer : for the thousand inhab- 
itants of Wareham are absentees from 'public worship ! 
The bell, sweet sound, which they used to listen to, 
is heard no more ; for when it rung, they would not 
come ! The church doors are closed ; for there is 
no occasion to open them ; for when they used to be 
open every Lord's day, they would not enter. The 
window-blinds are off, the panes and sashes are 
broken, and the house of the Lord lies waste — a 
mere dwelling-place of moles and bats — unless it 
may have become a barn and a stall : for though 
there be one full thousand people in Wareham, they 



334 THE public hearing: 

learned long ago to live without a church ! Do not 
think my imagination runs too fast ! What, else 
can be, when the worshippers are all gone, and the 
absentees are still absentees — when the tide has 
ebbed for ever, and the bell is silent for ever, and 
the church desolate for ever? Wareham — with a 
thousand inhabitants, but toithout a Sabbath or a 
church ! The absentees, were they gathered around 
me, would be horror-struck at the vision that starts 
up before us ! They desert the Lord's house, but 
would shudder at the thought of being deserted by 
it — of having the streams of morals and piety dried 
up, which have flowed from this fountain for a hun- 
dred years. 

But we may vary the supposition. I see no rea- 
son that obliges one thousand of our people, to 
sustain and honor public worship, more than the 
other thousand. If the absentees were all here, I 
might ask, Have not we the same right to stay at 
home on the Lord's day as you? — to neglect public 
worship, as you ? — to stroll the fields and shores, as 
some of you? — to catch fish and clams, as some 
of you ? If public worship be for naught, why 
should we attend it any more than you ? Why may 
not we desert it with our thousand, as well as you 
with your thousand? Suppose, then, in this con- 
vention to-day — at least sufficiently notified — that 
the whole town were present, and the question 
before us be, whether public worship be any longer 
continued among us ! I know there is something so 
shocking in the proposal, that it could never be 
entertained a moment in any assemblage of this 



SUBSTITUTES DISCAKDED. 335 

town ; but suppose it might be so, and that in this 
town-meeting of to-day. we are consulting for an 
institution, in regard to which we have been, of late 
years, half and half. Suppose this convention de- 
cide, by a unanimous vote, against any further 
continuance of this ancient and divine institution — 
this institution which came forth for man, at the 
very beginning of creation — which God has been 
increasing in privilege from age to age, and which 
has been shedding on man, in all times, the choicest 
blessings, and which has seemed radiant ever as 
with the light of heaven. Suppose, at length, that 
the folly of the absentees — or the wisdom, if you 
would rather call it wisdom — prevails ! At length, 
with faint hearts and feeble hands, those, who have 
sustained God's ordinances, give up, and the thou- 
sand attendants on public worship yield to the 
thousand absentees ! This is all the change that 
occurs. One half the population resolve to do what 
the other half does ! Every thing else is with us as 
it was when we came to this convention this morn- 
ing. One slight (?) change only has occurred — the 
absentees have carried the day ! Hereafter — here- 
after — hereafter — week after week — month after 
month — year after year — generation after generation 
— age after age — there will be no more public wor- 
ship in Wareham ! ! Half the community have 
been pressing this point, by their example, on the 
other half — and the other half has yielded — and 
Wareham, unanimously, without one whisper of 
dissent, has decided against public worship, for 
weeks, and months, and generations, and ages yet 



336 THE public hearing: 

to come ! ! It seems as if the heavens grew black 
while I speak — as if eternal gloom were settling 
down upon us. The church doors are to close upon 
us to-night, never to be opened again ! The crowd 
which goes forth to-night, will never meet to keep 
holy-day again ! The last tide of worshippers ebbs 
to-night, never to flow again ! The Sabbath's sun, 
which goes down to-night, will never light the peo- 
ple to God's house again ! The people of Wareham 
— what will they now be ? The old attendants on 
public worship — with all our imperfections, we had 
some conscience, some morals, some piety — some 
fruits we bore, while we were planted in the Lord's 
house; but where, what shall we now be? The 
old absentees— restrained and even aided by the 
forsaken sanctuary — where, what will they be after 
this ? I answer not — assured that there is not one 
absentee that would not be horror-struck at the 
thought of unanimous absence. Inconsiderate man ! 
You claim to be absent, and expect others to sustain 
the institution in which all blessings lie ! Inconsid- 
erate half of the people ! You claim the privilege of 
absence, and expect the other half to sustain it by 
their support and their presence. One half the peo- 
ple indifferent to an institution, of which they would 
no more dare to be destitute, than of the sun itself — 
when they would feel as much horror at its utter 
withdrawal, as they would if the sun were to be 
stricken from the heavens, and midnight dwell for 
ever on the face of the earth ! 

But I have not carried out this terrible supposition 
in its natural course. Whatever is worth while to 



SUBSTITUTES DISCARDED. 337 

be done here, is worth while to be imitated elsewhere. 
Suppose Rochester catches the Wareham spirit, and 
votes down public worship by a unanimous vote — 
and Sandwich, and the Cape, and the whole Old 
Colony — Old Plymouth, too, undoing the marvellous 
work which she began to do two centuries ago — 
Massachusetts — New England — the West — the entire 
country — unanimously resolve to do what half the 
country does! — the millions of absentees at length 
prevail over the millions of attendants on public 
worship, and our whole country forsakes God's house 
and ordinances ! But I cannot, I will not, I dare 
not, proceed ; my heart misgives me while I attempt 
to conceive the misery and ruin which must ensue. 
Better that Wareham — the Old Colony— Massachu- 
setts — New England — were sunk by an earthquake, 
than to bring on such a ruin ! 

But, again, the supposition may be varied at 
least with a more persuasive influence. So alive in 
its seeming deadness, is the public sentiment in favor 
of God's house, that the suppositions just now made 
could not be realized. Let me vary them, then, in 
a manner which, if possible, may win the people to 
the institution which they cannot utterly and abso- 
lutely reject ; which even the absentees themselves 
would reclaim, if it were once cast out. Think, 
then, what would be the issue of our first supposi- 
tion, if those who now sustain public worship were 
suddenly removed ; and there were left, as nearly as 
possible, to themselves, just the population who now 
neglect it. Be assured, matters would, right soon, 
take a very different turn. How many months, think 
29 



338 THE PUBLIC HEARING : 

you, would pass by, before the church doors would 
be unlocked, the church bell heard, the pastor and 
teacher sought unto, and the tide of worshippers 
flowing and ebbing as before? Not six months 
luoiild pass, before the conscience that there is, among 
the very absentees, would restore public worship! 
Nay, I will dare to say that if those who now attend 
my ministry were removed two thousand miles 
away, and the absentees were left upon my hands, 
this house would be fairly filled within six months, 
by those who would be horror-struck at living on 
the spot which God gave to their fathers, without 
any public worship to their fathers' God ! 

And if it be so ; if the institution has commended 
itself to the whole public ; if those who neglect it 
and dishonor it dare not and would not do without 
it ; if they would hasten to honor it, if they saw its 
utter departure inevitable ; if you think it ought to 
be honored ; if the whole mass of absentees acknowl- 
edge it as the fountain-head of blessing ; if they 
would not dare let it die — then, surely, they can be 
won, they cam be drawn to the sanctuary. Surely, 
if the public sentiment be on our side, we can secure 
the public doing; and our whole community may 
soon be a worshipping people. 

Agawam ' can we doubt it, with what we see 
before our eyes to-day ? — The tide which ebbs to-day 
will flow in again to the Lord's house, increased by 
the streams from every retirement of her population. 
Tionet will listen hereafter with a new interest to 
the Sabbath bell ; and will be won to join the crowds 
whom she sees week after week from her gentle hill ; 
and will come to worship in the courts of the Lord. 



SUBSTITUTES DISCARDED. 339 

The West, too, will throng in from their quiet farms 
and beautiful river, nor think the ways wearisome 
which their fathers trod, coming with delight to their 
holy house. And the Centre will gather up her 
scattered absentees, to welcome and greet the crowds 
gathering to keep holy-day. 

O, that it might be so ! and that, with increasing 
numbers, there might be also an improved spirit of 
attendance on public worship. What, if the expec- 
tations of our whole people were towards God's holy 
temple ? What, if they were to come up with earnest, 
and true, and large desires, filling out the transform- 
ing forms of worship — yielding to the commands 
and offers of the gospel ? What if the people should 
"take with them words, and turn unto the Lord 
their God," and his favor should be as the dew upon 
them 1 What if the people should welcome the gifts 
of the Saviour unto men, and should grow up unto 
the stature of the fulness of Christ? What if God's 
Spirit were welcomed on our seed, and his blessing 
on our offspring, making them spring as the grass 
and as the willows by the water-courses ; and our 
old men, planted in the courts of the Lord, were still 
bringing forth fruit in old age. How, then, would 
earth yield her increase, and God, even our own 
God, bless us ! How would every other means of 
blessing be invigorated, and made effectual ! How 
would divine discipline recover us and cherish us ! 
How would every place be a Bethel — the closet, 
and the grove, and the family, and the road, and 
the field, and the mart, become the places of our 
piety ; the Peniel made glorious by our intercourse 
with heaven ! How would our prosperity bind us in 



340 THE PUBLIC HEARING. 

gratitude, and praise, and service, to our divine 
Benefactor ; and our adversity yield us the peaceable 
fruits of righteousness ! And how should our life be 
blessed, seeing our children's children, and peace 
upon Israel, and how should our deaths prove but 
the opening "the gates of righteousness," that we 
might enter into the eternal temple ! 



NOTE. 

TO THE CHURCH, ON PROTRACTED MEETINGS, APRIL 9, 1834. 

On the renewal, for the third time, of a proposal for a pro- 
tracted meeting, I have chosen, in order to avoid all mis- 
apprehension, and to prevent the necessity of repeating it again, 
to make the following written reply; — being in substance the 
same as my verbal replies on two former occasions. 

First. My own health is such as to render me decidedly in- 
competent to the oversight and guidance of meetings for four 
successive days; — or of a. protracted meeting: and I cannot see 
that such a meeting can be advantageously carried on, except 
under the superintendence of the pastor. This reason, whether 
I regard my present or future usefulness, would be sufficient to 
govern my decision to decline, even on the supposition that pro- 
tracted meetings are desirable, where this reason does not exist. 

Secondly. I decline the more readily, whether on the above 
ground, or others, because, by all consent, protracted meetings 
are no ordinance of God, and therefore, when proposed, are of 
course submitted by men to the best judgment of other men, 
whose cooperation may be supposed necessary. It is a case, of 
course, where I am both at liberty and under obligations to 
decide for myself. 

Thirdly. Being then, as I suppose, both at liberty and under 
obligation to decide, in a case where my cooperation and super- 
intendence are proposed, — I do therefore deliberately say, as I 
have already verbally done, that protracted meetings, are, in my 
judgment, a mistaken measure; — that it is my full conviction 
that, ere-long, they will prove themselves to be so, to the conviction 
of all considerate Christians: — that with their novelty they will 
pass and be gone s — leaving principles and habits which will 



NOTE. 341 

retard the progress of the Redeemer's kingdom, unless, and until, 
those principles and habits shall be reformed. 

I believe them to be a mistaken measure, because: 

1. They are at variance with those divine arrangements which 
call communities and families to the employments of life, and 
with that infirmity of the body and mind, by which God has 
rendered the soundest constitutions incapable of them; of course 
with that regularity and repose which the human constitution, 
even when in full strength, requires. 

2. Because the advantage which they are supposed to afford 
cannot abide, — cannot be woven in with the web of life, like 
those which comport with the condition of man, — and because 
the supposition of their advantage must leave the greater pro- 
portion of human life under an imagined disadvantage, whether 
for publishing or embracing the gospel. 

3. Because the advantage which they propose, — namely, a 
separation from earthly concerns as the best means of conversion 
and sanctification, is on the mistaken principle that earthly cares 
and toils and blessings, as divinely intermixed, are unfavorable 
to the commencement and growth of piety. 

If there needed any proof that they are on these accounts a 
mistaken measure, it might be found in the progress to a grosser 
and still grosser mistake, to which they are evidently proceeding. 
Who can help pausing and thinking, when, instead of four days, 
ten, twenty, forty, or fifty days are claimed as the best means of 
promoting the spread of the gospel. Can ten, twenty, thirty, 
forty, fifty days' meetings be consistent with the divine arrange- 
ment for man ? Can they be woven in with the web of life ? 
Can they be on the principle that earth is a school for heaven ? 

My views are confirmed by facts in the history of the church, 
so notorious that the least informed are aware of them: — 
proving that evil has at length prevailed over the apparent 
good, wherever the influence of the gospel has been sought in 
separation from the appointed condition and employments of life. 
Witness the monastery and the nunnery, — places supposed of 
special advantage, because so separated; — yet proving a hin- 
drance instead a help to the progress of religion in the world. 

Fourthly. I decline the more readily, because so to do is more 
consonant with the principles and course of my ministry hitherto, 
and to which I feel myself devoted. By a figure, which I have 

29* 



342 NOTE. 

sometimes employed, and which needs no explanation, I have 
aimed to engage the church in the work, and to give the people 
the advantages of a three hundred and sixty-five days' 
meeting. From this aim I cannot consistently turn aside to a 
meeting of four days, which, from its very nature, must be tem- 
porary and partial, and must render us so much the less able to 
yield to the other and more important proposal. 

Fifthly. I have no fears that the gospel will fail of having 
" free course " among us, for want of the proposed measure: — 
because, 

1. I rely, with confidence, that the truth dispensed in ways 
divinely appointed and consistent with the condition and state of 
man, has the fairest possible opportunity for good effect. 

2. Because, by all consent, the apparent success of protracted 
meetings has been mainly, or only when the way was previously 
prepared, — i. e., when success was current, — and fairly pro- 
ceeding from other means. 

3. Because I see growing signs of success. If the gospel fails 
of success, it must be for the want of other means than those 
which I decline. 

But, sixthly. If protracted meetings, — or any other device of 
man, which was not inconsistent with just principles and habits, 
— were regarded as necessary to success, then would the duty of 
declining be more imperious, in order that expectation might be 
turned and the glory of all success be given to God and his word 
alone. So much the more, as any human plans are relied on to 
give efficacy to the word, so much the less can they be con- 
scientiously adopted. 

I do therefore decline the charge of a protracted meeting, 
first, as incompetent in point of health, to a task to which, in 
truth, I consider all men incompetent: secondly, as evidently no 
ordinance of God, on which I am at liberty and under obligation 
to act, according to my best judgment: thirdly, as a mistaken 
measure: fourthly, as out of keeping with the whole course of 
my ministry '.fifthly, in hopes of free course to God's word with- 
out it: and, sixthly, as a measure now deserving to be declined, 
because it claims to itself the honor due only to the word, the 
ordinances, and the Spirit of God: and I pray that God may so 
guide, as shall give his word free course among this people. 

Samuel Nott, Jr. 



SERMON XIX. 



NOVEMBER 10, 1839. 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 



Isaiah 2: 2—5. 

And it shall come to pass in the last days, that the mountain 
of the Lord's house shall be established in the top of the moun- 
tains, and shall be exalted above the hills; and all nations shall 
flow unto it. And many people shall go and say, Come ye, and 
let us go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the house of the 
God of Jacob; and he will teach us of his ways, and we will walk 
in his paths; for out of Z ion shall go forth the law, and the word 
of the Lord from Jerusalem. And he shall judge among the 
nations, and shall rebuke many people; and they shall beat their 
swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; 
nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they 
learn war any more. O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us 
walk in the light of the Lord.* 

It is now more than two years since I commenced 
the special and continued effort in behalf of public 
worship, which I propose to complete to-day ; — to 
complete, but not to dismiss ; — for I trust I may 
never dismiss it, as long as I may have the humblest 
charge in the Lord's house. How I appealed in each 

* Compare Micah 4, and Zechariah 8. 



344 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

several district in the autumn of 1837, the whole 
town must know ; as I trust they do, "by report, and 
in degree, how I renewed my appeal, and that for 
two months, in August and September, 1838, from 
my own official place in this house ; and how I have 
renewed it again and again during the past year. I 
must say, in making this reference to the past, that / 
at least have clearer views of the nature and purpose 
of public worship, and a deeper sense of the duty 
and privilege than when I commenced these efforts. 
I will not suppose that they can have been wholly 
lost upon others. 

It is now November, 1839. Two years have 
passed like other years, and for that very reason, 
how urging and confirming our appeal. Seed time 
and harvest, summer and winter, day and night, 
have not ceased, and the bow of promise — the token 
that our heavenly Father remembereth his covenant 
— again and again has been set in the clouds, calling 
us and all the nations upon earth to remember the 
covenant between God and man, over the first altar of 
the new world. The desolations of winter have been 
twice upon us, and we were strong in the confidence 
of the returning spring and summer. The hopes of 
seed time and the joys of harvest have been twice 
upon us ; twice we have ploughed and sown in hope, 
and twice returned partakers of our hope, rejoicing, 
and bearing our sheaves with us. And now, amidst 
the confidence and the blessings secured to man, with 
the first exercises of social worship in the new world, 
have we and our whole people worshipped the Father 
in spirit and in truth ] Nay, have we kept harmony 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 345 

with the whole host of heaven ; with sun, moon and 
stars, and with all birds, and beasts, and trees, and 
shrubs, and plants, upon the earth; which day by 
day, and night by night, hour by hour, and moment 
by moment, have reminded us of God's covenant 
with man; and have led us forth as in hymns of 
praise unto God, their Maker and ours 1 Or, again, 
two years have passed, and all nations around us 
have been still constant in their worship, strict to 
their times, and places, and services, not one of them 
forsaking their gods — not one of them failing in pub- 
lic and private worship to gods made with hands ; — 
and have we been as faithful to our God — the eternal 
Father — the God that made the heavens and the 
earth ? Or, once more ; two years have passed, and 
we are still alive, amidst all dangers and deaths, — 
sustained, preserved, restored, — we are living men ! 
Amidst deaths oft, we are still living men ! We 
breathe ! we walk ! we handle ! we speak ! we are 
the whole mystery of living men ; we execute the 
whole mystery of living men ! and while we re- 
member the dead who have fallen thick around us, 
do we say, — " The living, the living, he shall praise 
thee, as I do this day. The Lord was ready to save 
me ; therefore will we sing our songs to the stringed 
instruments all the days of our life in the house of 
the Lord." 

I cannot make this review without lamentation 
over the manifest failure of my effort and yours. 
Even we who are habitual attendants — how far do 
we fall short of that true worship which would trans- 
form ourselves, and make us more and more exem- 



346 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

plars and aids to others ! And what numbers, still, 
are absentees from public worship ! Nevertheless, 
there are some tokens of good. 

I consider it no small token for good that the 
urgency, plied in whatever way, by me or by your- 
selves, has met the general approval ; that the public 
conscience and feeling have sanctioned it, without, I 
verily believe, one word or look of disapproval ; nay, 
for the most part, with words and looks of approval, 
even by the very neglecters themselves. Those that 
do not the duty — those who accept not the privilege, 
approve and honor those who urge them to public 
worship. It cannot be that labor so received has 
been altogether in vain ; that seeds have not been 
sown which will at length yield their increase. Be- 
sides, whether with or without the influence of our 
urgency, we have witnessed, the past summer, two 
new assemblings on alternate Sabbaths ; collecting in 
both, I have every reason to believe, two hundred at 
least, who had been in no habit of attendance on 
public worship. Of the character of the services I can 
have no knowledge ; and of course, only refer to them 
as a public acknowledgement, in quarters of grievous 
neglect, of the duty and privilege of public worship — 
of its necessity to the well-being, and almost to the 
being, of the people. I will not pass this notice 
without the word of advice which seems to me to 
belong to it : 

Never again pause in your attempts at public ivor- 
ship ; you have acknowledged now, publicly , the duty 
and the privilege; and beicare that you sin not 
against God and yourselves by backsliding. 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 347 

With regard to the manner, two suggestions are to 
be made. 

1. If your population, and that of the town be 
large enough, to build and to sustain from year to 
year, the Lord's house among you, proceed with 
decision, and energy, and perseverance, to do it ; 
and then see that your doctrine be uncorrupt — your 
worship pure and scriptural — and we at this ancient 
Centre will bid you God-speed. Your hundreds have 
not lessened our hundreds here ; nor do we fear they 
will. 

2. But if the population and resources of your own 
villages and the town be not such as to warrant the 
expectation of permanent and good establishments, 
then, instead of falling back into former neglect, as 
in like cases has often occurred, come in crowds to 
your ancient Centre ; crowd and over-crowd this 
house ; or if you will, crowd and over-crowd other 
places consecrated to public worship ; and bear 
hence from week to week, and from year to year, 
the rich blessings of the sanctuary. If you will 
establish and perpetuate a true public worship, none 
shall rejoice more than we; if your attempts die 
away in former neglect, none shall be more grieved. 

It belongs, however, to me, especially as the officer 
of this house, and on this occasion, to acknowledge 
with thanksgiving and hope our own enlarged ac- 
commodations, which we enter upon in their complete 
state this day. I trust we have made this enlarge- 
ment in faith ; let us pray that the people may crowd 
and over-crowd us, until again we shall hear the cry, 
"The place is too strait for me;" and until our 



348 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

whole people shall gather themselves together to the 
Lord' s house. Acknowledging with thanksgiving and 
hope, this token and this means of our progress in 
public worship — in such worship as communities 
owe to their God and Saviour, I dedicate this en- 
larged gallery, as this whole house has been dedi- 
cated, to the Father, and the Son, and the Holy 
Ghost ; the one living and true God ! ' ' The Lord our 
God be with us, as he was with our fathers ; let him 
not leave us nor forsake us ; that he may incline our 
hearts unto Him, to walk in all his ways, and to 
keep his commandments, and his statutes, and his 
judgments. . . . Now therefore, arise, O Lord God, 
into thy resting-place — thou and the ark of thy 
strength. Let thy priests, O Lord God, be clothed with 
salvation, and let thy saints rejoice in goodness." 

And now what more can I do in aid of public 
worship? In what way can I best complete and 
crown the efforts of these two years ? What can I 
do to give life, and vigor, and permanence, to this 
continued and renewed appeal, and to assure us that 
it shall never die 1 What, unless it be to connect 
all the lessons of the present and the past, with the 
glowing lessons of the future ; to attempt to see still 
more clearly, to feel still more deeply, the duty and 
the privilege of public worship in the bright visions 
of prophecy : to fix the method of our religious im- 
provement in view of the method of the last days ? 
To this let us betake ourselves, following the beau- 
tiful expressions of the prophets. 

The points of instruction and influence in these 
visions of prophecy, seem to me to be the following : 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 349 

1. The exaltation of the Lord's house or of public 
worship as chief among the divine institutions for the 
benefit of man. 

It is plain, that the text is figurative, and that the 
prosperity of the kingdom of Christ is indicated in 
terms which belong, literally, to the dispensation it 
succeeds : thus intimating not only its general prev- 
alence, but the method by which it will prevail. 
Public worship, coeval with, man, and fixed at 
length in central glory in the Temple and on Mount 
Zion, attained its perfection and its adaptedness to 
the whole earth, when Jesus rent the vail, and opened 
the house of prayer for all people : thenceforth, it is 
the method of piety, the way of approach to God, 
the mould for the heart and character : and the 
prophecy recognizes it, as supremely and gloriously 
the method of the last days ; by which truth and 
righteousness shall fill the earth. The instructions 
of the sanctuary and the forms of worship provided 
for earlier and baser times, instead of being displaced 
as the knowledge of the Lord is filling and fills the 
whole earth, will advance from glory to glory and 
abide in universal supremacy. In the mid-day 
glory of the Millennium, there will be no dispensing 
with public worship. By it, will men continue to 
learn the law of the Lord, to seek the Lord of hosts 
and to pray before him. 

And so it must be now. Public worship must be 
regarded as the chief method of extending and estab- 
lishing Christ's kingdom among men : and that, 
plainly — in the light of this prophetic vision — not 
principally as the source of knowledge, but as the 
30 



350 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

method by which knowledge is made effectual. The 
heathen even, are represented by the apostle as 
meeting the glad tidings of the gospel, exulting 
chiefly in the new institution which arises before 
their eyes: "How beautiful upon the mountains 
are the feet of him that bringeth good tidings of 
good, that saith unto Zion, Thy God reigneth." 
If we would bless the heathen, we must give them 
not only the messages, but the method of salvation. 
The Lord's house must be established in all lands. 

In Christian lands especially, it is not information, 
which is chiefly required. It is not to hear what 
they did not know, that the people come together, 
but to the method by which they may profit by their 
knowledge. Information, in degree, they already 
have, inherited from their fathers, breathed in, as 
with the air, from infancy and childhood, and lying 
before their eyes in the perfect book of knowledge, 
meeting the law within ; so that if information 
were the chief matter, there were some color of 
excuse for those who absent themselves from the 
Lord's house, because they are already sufficiently 
informed. But it is as a method chiefly that the 
Lord's house is provided; so important, so indispen- 
sable, that maturity, and age, and knowledge grow 
and thrive chiefly as they are planted there : so 
indispensable, that it will remain in its power when 
"the knowledge of the Lord shall fill the whole 
earth as the waters do the sea." 

This principle explains two classes of facts which 
are universally acknowledged, viz., the advance- 
ment and declension of religion according to the 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 351 

state of public worship among a people. It is not 
merely from less acquaintance with the gospel, that 
a well-informed people go backward in morals and 
piety, as soon as they fail to maintain and attend 
public worship : nor that the same is wont to be true 
with regard to individuals. They are not imme- 
diately, nor soon, turned over from knowledge to 
ignorance of the saving truth : but they have turned 
themselves away from its divinely appointed method ; 
and they are reaping the consequences of their folly. 
And, on the other hand, when the Lord's house is 
restored or set up among a people, the good effects 
which follow are not chiefly in the new information 
they have gained— that they have found out the 
saving truth of which they were ignorant before — 
but that they have received and welcomed the 
method of its use. Hence, of course, it is not the 
" preaching of the gospel " that is merely or chiefly 
required in our wide-spreading country, but — which 
of course includes it — the great and all-comprehend- 
ing institution by which the gospel is made effectual 
on the minds of men — public worship. 

O that this institution, as an institution — this 
method, as a method — were indeed supreme in the 
minds of men ! — in our minds ! Supreme in our 
opinion' and expectation, as becomes the method of 
the last days ; that thus we might receive to our- 
selves and extend around us, the blessings which 
await the whole earth. 

But alas ! opinion fails us. How little is the 
Lord's house apprehended in its true purpose : as a 
moulding institution ! How do men regard it as the 



352 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

mere source of information or the mere seat of enter- 
tainment : and how many forsake it, weary of its 
worn-out communications ! — of its well-known 
knowledge ! Or, how many imagine the method 
of piety to be in every thing else : in some device of 
man, or in something to be devised by man: in 
some new device of yesterday, — in some newer 
device of to-morrow ! Of course, expectation fails 
us ; and instead, how commonly, apathy and indif- 
ference, not. only in regard to the undervalued 
method, but to every method ; or, when the mind is 
roused, the eye open and the ear alert, how common- 
ly do men listen to every one who cries, Lo here ! — 
lo there ! — for the newest and the next method that 
may be announced. How many ask, What next ? 
and when will the next arise in its power ? — instead 
of expecting the moulding influence of the Lord's 
house ! 

This is what is wanting in behalf of public 
worship — this supremacy in the minds of men — in 
opinion, and expectation — and it must be required 
from the pulpit and the press, and in mutual 
communication among all the people. Wo unto 
him that saith to man's device and plan, Awake ! 
— to the dumb stone of man's invention, Arise, it 
shall teach ! For there is no breath in it ! " But the 
Lord is in his holy temple. Let all the earth keep 
silence before him !" 

It is but following the guidance of the text, to 
crown this appeal for the supremacy of the Lord's 
house in the minds of men, by referring to the exam- 
ple of pagan nations, and of all worshippers of the 
true God. 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 353 

What other institution, then, has such testimony 
in the general voice of human nature ] Have you 
heard, m the wide world, and in the history of all 
times, of any nation that did not pay public worship 
to its gods, even though they were no gods? Have 
you heard of any nation or people, after they had 
changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an 
image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, 
and four-footed beasts, and creeping things — who 
even in that debasement dared forsake public wor- 
ship ? And hi those accounts which you have been 
gathering from the four winds of heaven in your 
own times, have you not learned that the six hun- 
dred millions of idolaters — that immense multitude 
— pay, with constant anxiety and fidelity, public 
worship to gods of every shape and name, thus join- 
ing the voice of countless millions of the dead pagans, 
in calling the living world to the great duty and 
privilege of man ? requiring of you and of all Chris- 
tendom the vow which the prophecy prompts, as we 
look upon the very heathenism which surrounds us. 
Our attempt to exalt public worship as chief among 
the institutions for the good of man, is accompanied 
with the general voice of human kind ; claiming from 
us the decision, " For all people will walk every one 
in the name of his god ; and we will walk in the 
name of the Lord our God for ever and ever." 

Again : What other institution is so venerable 
in its origin — in its antiquity — in the honor it has 
received from the wise and good, and in the glory 
which has crowned the many generations who have 
walked in its light ? Especially, what recollections 
30* 



354 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

cluster around the appeal which closes this prophecy 
of Isaiah : " O, house of Jacob, come ye and let us 
walk in the light of the Lord ! " From that private 
Bethel^ where the wandering patriarch received the 
promise on his seed, amidst ascending and descend- 
ing angels, and where at length he built " an altar 
unto God," as the centre of social worship — from 
Tabernacle and Temple, and at length from the 
house of prayer for all people, meeting the rising 
glory of the last days, what examples meet us and 
urge us! "O, house of Jacob, come ye, and let us 
walk in the light of the Lord." 

What other institution can be compared with this? 
What other is worthy to be exalted above this in the 
minds of men 1 What other can add to the testimo- 
ny of all pagan antiquity, that of the hundreds of 
millions of our own day and generation ; and then 
to pagan testimony, that of the church of the living 
God, from Abel until now ; and then to these both. 
can bring, in sure and certain vision, the whole 
testimony of a reclaimed world — the whole testimony 
of man redeemed, to man craving redemption — of 
man worshipping in spirit and in truth, to man 
refusing worship — the whole wisdom of man recov- 
ered from his folly, and the whole righteousness of 
man recovered from his wickedness, against the 
folly and wickedness of man 1 

2. The necessity of mutual sympathy and urgen- 
cy, in order to the due influence of this chief institu- 
tion. 

"Many people shall go and say, Come ye, and let 
us go up to the mountain of the Lord." So it has 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 355 

been, in degree, from the time when Abel and Cain 
went together to the altar ; when Jacob said, " Let us 
arise and go up to Bethel; " when the tribes of the 
Lord went up unto the testimony of Israel, saying, 
singly, mutually, as they went, "I was glad when 
they said unto me, Let us go unto the house of the 
Lord: " when the apostle said, "Let us not forsake 
the assembling of ourselves together." So it has 
been, amidst the perversions of all pagan nations — 
so it is now, in the very pagans around us, perversely 
true to their kind, to their nature, and condition, and 
relations. Six hundred millions of pagans, with 
mutual sympathy and urgency, are crowding to the 
worship of their gods. Every family, every village, 
every nation, is filled with the cry, "Let us go." 
Every valley, and hill, and holy place, echo with 
the sympathy and urgency of countless multitudes, 
calling one another to the worship of their gods ; 
calling us, amidst the voice of all patriarchs and 
saints, and amidst the visions of many people, urging 
each other to the mountain of the Lord ; and requir- 
ing that we should say to one another, to all around 
us, and to the wide world, " Let us go." 

Yes. The method of the last days must come into 
use by mutual sympathy and urgency. Man is 
what he was, what he will be — not an outcast from 
the common conscience, and heart, and occasions of 
humanity — from the common relations and sympa- 
thies of his kind. Public worship is adapted to the 
nature and condition of man, individually, socially ; 
to the "plague of his own heart," which each man 
severally knows, and to all the interests and feelings 



356 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

which beloug to families, neighborhoods, towns, 
nations, and the world. There is no conceivable 
urgency that men can take upon their lips, so likely 
to find every where an attentive ear; amidst the 
chances and changes of humanity — the joys and 
sorrows, the hopes and fears, the life and death, of 
this condition in which we are — as this, passing from 
man to man, from family to family, from neighbor- 
hood to neighborhood, from town to town, and from 
nation to nation, until many people shall go, and 
say, u Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of 
the Lord." 

O that those were wise, who are the children of 
this light — wise as are the children of darkness, who 
cover the pagan world with their sympathy and 
urgency, and who throng, by mutual influence, all 
the ways of the temples of false gods ! O that we 
were wise, according to the wisdom of those, who, 
in the brightest days of Tabernacle and Temple, and 
of the house of prayer for all nations, beginning 
with few voices of earnest desire, and reverence, 
and faith, and hope, swelled their little companies 
into multitudes, saying, as they went to Zion, " Let 
us go." O that we were wise, around every temple 
of the living God — around this our own — with the 
wisdom, and the love, and the sympathy, and the 
urgency, which beam upon us from the visions of 
prophecy ; and that we would say one to another, 
" Come ye, and let us go ! " O that this church and 
people would join their watchman's voice, as if the 
prophecy were beginning to be fulfilled in their ear : 
" There shall be a day, saith the prophet, that the 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 357 

watchmen upon the Mount Ephraim shall cry, 
"Arise ye, and let us go up to Zion, unto the Lord 
our Orod." 

And why not? Think what man can do with 
man, by mutual sympathy and urgency, in the 
smallest affairs — for the least interests. Think how 
it will be to-morrow — each man saying to each man, 
from one extreme of our population to the other, 
Come ye, and let us go — walk with me, ride with 
me, come any way, every way — urging one another 
to your annua] election. And do you think the 
attempt will be vain, to urge the same men to the 
Lord's house? Try and see. Try as earnestly, as 
perseveringly, and, before you are aware, " ten 
men" will take hold of your skirts, "saying, We 
will go with you, for we have heard that God is 
with you." 

3. The most striking feature in the vision of the 
last days might seem at first to be the marvellous 
combination and union overspreading the wide 
world ; countless millions of men, each moving the 
other — all moving, as by one common impulse, to 
the Lord's house. Yet such a union never could 
take place, were it not for the 'personal and individu- 
al intention and compliance, which is next to be 
spoken of, in the method of the last days. There is 
no millennial way of duty and privilege — of religion 
and salvation — of worship on earth, preparatory to 
the eternal temple — other than the voice of righteous 
Abel still speaketh from the dead — other than the 
whole cloud of ancient witnesses exemplified — other 
than has been taken by all holy men, since Jesus 



358 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

opened the temple for all nations. There never 
was, there never will be, there never can be, any 
method of salvation, other than that of personal and 
individual intention and compliance. This will be 
the method of the last days. That united urgency 
and declaration has in it of necessity the expression 
of each and single of the countless minds from which 
it proceeds: "Come ye, and let us go up to the 
mountain of the Lord, to the house of the God of 
Jacob, and he will teach us of his ways, and we will 
walk in his paths?'' That united worship, which 
countless minds will offer, can be no other than the 
united prayer and praise of each single and several 
mind — each responding to the call in which all 
unite, saying, " Let us go speedily to pray before the 
Lord, and to seek the Lord of hosts : I will go also." 
There can be no true worship paid in the Lord's 
house, without intention and compliance — without 
the design to walk, without walking, in the ways of 
the Lord — without a designed and yielding com- 
pliance with the transforming forms of public wor- 
ship. 

And so it must be now. Such must be the method 
of our own days — such may be. The privilege, the 
duty of personal and individual intention and com- 
pliance will be theirs — it is ours. Then, when the 
chief institution for the benefit of man is exalted to 
its due supremacy in the sight of the whole earth — 
when countless men shall move each other, and be 
moved, as in one common stream, to the Lord's house, 
there will be no easier method of salvation than at 
this present time: there is now none more difficult 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 359 

than there will be then. Be that number ever so 
great, that tide of men ever so universal, each drop 
in that flowing ocean will move forward in its own 
singleness and unity — each in its own intention and 
compliance. Each man, in the secrecy of his own 
bosom, will meet his social opportunity, and make 
it his own method of piety, his own way of salva- 
tion, his own mould for the heart and character; 
and each will pursue his own single track in the 
ways of the Lord, carrying out into his whole life 
and conduct, the influence of the house of the Lord. 
And novi, the Lord's house being supreme in our 
regard, in our opinion and expectation, and being 
flowed unto by our families and neighborhoods, can- 
not confer its whole blessing, save in the method 
which thus glows upon us in the visions of prophecy. 
Few or many — many or few — we must and we may 
reach the full blessings of the sanctuary, by indi- 
vidual and personal intention and compliance — by 
walking in his ways, and praying truly before the 
Lord of hosts. 

You have heard me ask, once and again during 
the past year, with earnestness, Wherefore do we 
pray? Wherefore goes forth the law from Zion, 
and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem; and 
wherefore have the forms of ancient prayer and 
praise passed over from the ancient temple to the 
new, and with them the assurance of deliverance 
in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, for whosoever shall 
call upon the name of the Lord ? Wherefore — if, as 
we fear, those who come, come without intention to 
comply with the law of the word which goes forth — 



360 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

with the prayer and the praise which are given to 
prompt their lips and their hearts — and without 
even the attempt at compliance? Nay, when the 
hearers, for the most, deny that the law which goes 
forth is a practicable law — and the prayer that is 
given, is a practicable prayer ; when they doubt or 
deny the powers of that house of the Lord, to which 
they have come ; when, in a word, they intend no 
compliance with the transforming lessons and forms 
of God's holy temple — no moulding of the heart and 
character in the moulds of the temple ! 

How does even conscience fail its rebukes and its 
urgency, — so little do the people apprehend their 
privilege and opportunity in the open house of 
prayer, — their power in the gospel and the forms of 
worship with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven ; complaining of the inconvenience and hin- 
drance of their relation to the first Adam, instead of 
acknowledging the obligation of their relation to the 
second Adam ; cavilling at the evils of the fall, in- 
stead of being mindful of the high places in Christ 
Jesus to which they are exalted ; at what is impos- 
sible to man, instead of claiming of themselves all 
that is possible to God in man by the spirit of his 
Son ; wrapping themselves tenfold in Christian in- 
fidelity, in scriptural atheism, instead of seeing 
themselves stripped of every cloak for their sin, in 
the open temple of all people. Yourselves even : 
with what conviction on your conscience came you 
to these courts to-day? Was it of your duty, not 
merely to pay your formal service, but to worship in 
spirit and in truth, — to adopt the method of piety 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 361 

which meets you here — to enter and pursue this 
way of approach to God — to flow into this mould of 
the heart and character 1 

Much more, how does faith fail ! — the actual in- 
tention and compliance, in the multitude who come 
to the house of prayer — in the holy place — at the 
mercy seat — before the throne of grace ! When 
conscience fails, faith cannot arise and prevail ! 
When the duty is not acknowledged — when men 
plead guiltless in their unbelief, how shall faith 
arise and prevail even within the house of prayer 
itself? How shall Christian infidelity — scriptural 
atheism, bear the fruits of faith on the high- 
est places in Christ Jesus? These messages of 
grace — words of spirit and life — how dead they 
may prove ! These words of prayer and praise 
which God has given that men may turn to him, 
how dead they may prove, in those very temples 
where he gathers the outcasts of Israel and the stran- 
gers of the Gentiles together, that whosoever shall 
call upon the name of the Lord may be saved. 
Yourselves even : How came you to these courts ? 
How are you in these courts ? Do you take the 
words which God has given you that you may turn 
to him, and find his favor as the dew upon you ? 
The prayers you prayed, did you pray ? The 
psalms you sung, did you sing? Did you try to 
pray and sing in spirit and in truth? Have you 
made — are you making — will you make, this method 
of piety your own ? Say, is not the psalm true 1 
And when you sing it, are you — will you be true to 
it : yielding to the powers acknowledged in your 
31 



362 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

own form of worship ? Or do you exalt those powers 
too high ? Are you ashamed of your harmony of 
praise ? — will you deny the notes you sing 7 

" There the great Monarch of the skies 
His saving power displays, 
And light breaks in upon our eyes 
With kind and quickening rays. 

With his rich gifts the heavenly dove 

Descends and fills the place; 
While Christ reveals his wondrous love, 

And sheds abroad his grace. 

There, mighty God, thy words declare, 

The secrets of thy will; 
And still we seek thy mercies there, 

And sing thy praises still." 

The method of the last days, on which, in this 
particular, we have been insisting, stands as in other 
respects, confirmed and enforced by the whole history 
of religion among men, even as the prophet intimates. 
Abel's voice, from the first altar of visible worship, 
still speaks, exemplifying and enforcing a personal 
intention and compliance; and Abraham's, and 
Jacob's ; and the worship of all the true sons of 
Israel ; and of the apostles and of all Christian Gen- 
tiles since the vail was rent, and the holy place 
opened to all nations ; requiring now as in all times 
past and in all time to come, our social and our per- 
sonal decision. " O house of Jacob, come ye and 
let us walk in the light of the Lord." "We will 
walk in his paths." " I will go also." 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 363 

The pagans too — in what crowds they come — 
what throngs fill the ways to their temples — what 
whole towns, and villages, and cities, and nations, 
flow to the worship of their gods ! — putting all Chris- 
tian nations to shame, where the true God is wor- 
shipped by such fractions of the people. But how 
are those masses made up 1 How are they com- 
bined in that example which the prophet holds up 
to those who should crowd the temple of the living 
God? Only by personal and individual intention 
and compliance; requiring of us — of all and of 
each — the words of the prophet — " For all people 
will walk every one in the name of his God, and we 
will walk in the name of the Lord our God for ever 
and ever." 

4. Lastly; the visions of prophecy illustrate the 
harmony of this sacred institution with secular em- 
ployments and enjoyments* Earthly industry, and 
the consequent earthly blessings, will thrive under 
the shelter of the sanctuary, amidst the full glory of 
the Lord's Jrouse, in the last days. The visions of 
prophecy are at once of an age of prevailing religion, 
and of earthly employments and enjoyments. Can 
any instruction be plainer, than glows in the scene 
before us ? " They shall beat their swords into 
ploughshares, and their spears into priming-hooks." 
" They shall sit every man under his vine and 
under his fig-tree, and none shall make them afraid." 
The forge and the field will still be filled with their 
busy occupants ; and the toils they ply shall not be 
merely for the necessities of a life preparatory for 

* See Author's " Sermons from the Fowls of the Air, &c." 



364 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

another, but for all that can regale and cheer this life 
while it passes. Shall we say, in a good sense, the 
Millennium will be a secular age ; an age when 
industry will cover the earth with all means of en- 
joyment, and when an undisturbed and unharassed 
race will welcome those means, and rejoice in them 
under the only limitation, viz., ivalking in the ways 
of the Lord. The crowds which go up to the Lord's 
house will return transformed by its forms, walking 
according to its laws — and yet into all the employ- 
ments and enjoyments of this life. 

The temple, then, become in the largest sense a 
house of prayer for all nations, will retain its ancient 
adaptedness to the world in which it stands, as the 
seat and centre of worship, as the method of piety, 
the way of approach to God, the mould for the heart 
and character, amidst the occasions of life. If in that 
glorious age there will be less need to look to the 
centre of religious solemnities, amidst cares, and 
anxieties, and sufferings, it will be no less suited to 
the fulness of earthly prosperity — to successful in- 
dustry and full enjoyment. Then, when the ways 
of Zion shall be thronged by all the earth, there will 
be no abiding there, as if secular employments must 
be at discord with religious duties ; but men will 
withdraw from the holy place with the temple, to 
employments and enjoyments in perfect harmony 
therewith. The crowds returning from the wel- 
comed lessons, from the fulfilled forms of the Lord's 
house, will go back to secular industr}?-, to earthly 
blessings, writing holiness to the Lord upon the 
very bells of the horses. Wrong employments will 
be given up, but not right ones ; the wrong use of 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 365 

the anvil and the forge, of the plough and the prun- 
ing-knife, but not the right use; and the wrong 
enjoyment of the fruits of the field and the vineyard, 
but not the right enjoyment, in which men will be 
regaled and cheered amidst the repose with which 
their willing and joyful labors are intermixed. And 
these right employments and enjoyments amidst 
earthly things will be all in harmony with the house 
of God, with the law of the Lord, and with the 
transforming forms of worship. Heaven will be 
begun on earth, because the spirit and temper of 
heaven have begun to mingle with the worship and 
the works of earth. 

And so it must be now. The method of the last 
days] of which the Lord's house is the centre and 
the substance, is not complete until all the employ- 
ments and enjoyments of this life make harmony 
with its pure instructions, with its heavenly wor- 
ship. We do not employ the method of the last 
days, if our service at the Lord's house is a mere 
matter of that sacred place and its sacred times — if 
it go not with us to give energy and skill to every 
right employment of this present life — if it go not 
with us to give a right enjoyment of the blessings of 
this present life. That use of the Lord's house — or 
of any religious assemblings whatever — which does 
not sanctify all week-day and earthly employments 
and enjoyments — which regards only sacred times 
and places and another world, is not the method of 
the last days — is no fit method for us. If the foun- 
tain-head must be raised high, it is that it may have 
free course through all the low grounds of human 
31* 



366 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

life. The law of the Lord — the word of the Lord 
proceeding from Mount Zion — must have free course 
through the forge and the field — amidst the toils of 
the artisan and the husbandman — and amidst their 
rest and refreshment under the vines and fig-trees 
which their hands have reared — amidst the plenty, 
and the sweetness, and the beauty, which are de- 
signed to cheer and comfort man. Even now), 
anticipating a better day, we must say, " God be 
merciful unto us, and bless us, and cause his face to 
shine upon us, that thy way may be known upon 
earth, thy saving health among all nations. Let the 
people praise thee, O God ; let all the people praise 
thee. Then shall the earth yield her increase, and 
God, even our own God, shall bless us." 

O no ; the lesson glowing on the visions of pro- 
phecy is not a mere separate lesson of the Lord's 
house — of sermons and of worship — of religion 
dressed up in church and sanctuary for the sacred 
day and occasion — nor of religion foreseeing only 
and joyfully expecting the life to come ; but the 
lesson is of earth amidst the things of earth — of 
industry and comfort here in harmony with God's 
house — of employment and enjoyment, prompted and 
governed by the influence of God's holy temple. In 
anticipating this lesson, we are not to slacken the 
labors of the forge and the field, but to direct and 
quicken them by the principles of God's word. We 
are not to disregard or refuse all that can please the 
appetite, and the senses, and the imagination, and 
the understanding, and the reason, which God has 
given us ; but to obtain them, to receive them, to 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 367 

welcome them, in the spirit and temper of God's 
word. Would we set about the method of the last 
days in good earnest, what a change would be 
wrought, not only in the temples of the living God, 
crowded and over-crowded with attentive and true 
worshippers from week to week, and from year to 
year, but in the whole aspect of things around us. 
Idlers would disappear from our streets, tipplers and 
drunkards would no longer be seen in their idle 
walks or their idle haunts, complaining of hard times 
made hard or harder by their indolence and their 
vice ! Wrong employments of all kinds, and wrong 
enjoyments of all kinds, would rapidly disappear : 
nothing wrong would be done because a living 
could not be obtained by doing right. Men would 
see what scope God has given for right industry on 
the earth which he has formed for man. Our sands 
and our swamps would be changed into beds of 
clover and green grass — into gardens and fields of 
corn — and be covered with the choicest vines and 
fruit-trees : and ceasing the maxim, " Every man for 
himself," man would call every man his neighbor, 
and every man his brother, under the shades which 
his own industry had prepared : and all this in 
harmony with the Lords house ; all this because the 
law of the Lord went forth from our Zion — the word 
of the Lord from our Jerusalem ; all this in harmony, 
too, with the worship and the peace of the eternal 
temple. They who do most to make earth a para- 
dise, on the principle of the Lord's house on earth, 
will be best prepared for the paradise above. They 
who truly go up to the Lord's house, and are taught 



368 THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 

in his way, and walk in his paths, will be most 
efficient and skilful in earthly industry — in making 
this a pleasant world, and in enjoying its pleasures. 
Let us complete the method of the last days, by a 
right engagement in the employments and enjoy- 
ments of this life, in harmony with God's house. 
And here, again, the example of the pagan world, 
and of the true worshippers, enforces the prophetic 
vision. 

If the heathen err in supposing that a true holiness 
can be found only in seclusion from temptation and 
affairs, and have welcomed on the paths of sin, gods 
of like passions with themselves, they have not 
silenced the law within them, that claims worship, 
if at the temples, so upon all the walks of life. The 
very superstitions we condemn — superstitions of 
baseness and folly — have in them still the witness 
what worship is suited to man's nature, and where 
the religion of the temple must extend itself. Hea- 
thenism is a religion of the forge and the field — of 
all the employments and enjoyments of men — of the 
toils of seed-time, and the joys of harvest — of gods 
for every employment and enjoyment of man ! Even 
so let us walk, in the house of the Lord our God, in 
all the paths of life, in all employments and enjoy- 
ments. 

In like manner, and without the defects and errors 
which the heathen mingle with their all-important 
lesson — yea, almost with the beauty of the prophetic 
vision — does the whole line of patriarchs and proph- 
ets, and apostles, show the harmony of their social 
piety with all the walks of life — with their secular 



THE METHOD OF THE LAST DAYS. 369 

affairs — with their employments and enjoyments. 
The condemnation of this world has no sanction 
from those of whom the world was not worthy. 
The reprobation of its right business, and even of 
its true pleasures, has no more sanction in the Scrip- 
ture history of the past, than in the Scripture visions 
of the future. The faith of their pilgrimage mixed 
with earthly things; and the united voice of the 
whole line of Scripture models, is such as his was 
whose name stands in the mutual exhortation to 
which we are called: "O house of Jacob, let us 
walk in the light of the Lord." True piety, in all 
ages, has lived and walked with God amidst the 
things of earth — active in the employments, cheerful 
in the enjoyments of this present life, after the man- 
ner of that ancient patriarch. The Millennium will 
be the golden age, beyond the fables of the poets — 
true to the vision of God's holy prophets — in all the 
glory of earthly industry and enjoyments ; not be- 
cause this world is chosen before God, but in God, 
as the Lawgiver and Redeemer of men. This world 
will thrive, because the people shall be all righteous. 
Such is the method of the last days, issuing in the 
reign of peace and righteousness in the earth. Be it 
ours to make it the growing method of our own — 
joining our neighbors, and kindred, and countrymen, 
and the world, "until many people shall go, and 
say, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain of 
the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, for he 
will teach us of his way, and we will walk in his 
paths." 



SERMON XX 



JANUARY 5, 1840. 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 



1 Peter 1 : 24, 25. 

For all flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man as the flower 
of grass. The grass withereth and the flower thereof falleth 
away : but the word of the Lord endureth for ever. And this is 
the word which by the gospel is preached unto you. 

This church was constituted December 25, 1739, 
and the first pastor, the Rev. Roland Thatcher, was 
ordained the day following, December 26, old style : 
or, corresponding to the new style, January 5 and 
January 6, 1740. We celebrate, therefore, to-day, 
the one hundredth anniversary of the formation of 
this church, and of the full constitution of it, under 
its pastoral head, one hundred years ago to-morrow. 
The town was incorporated in the summer of 1739, 
and was formed by uniting Agawam, a part of 
Plymouth, with a part of Rochester. The first set- 
tlements were made earlier : Agawam having been 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 371 

sold by Plymouth, in 1682, and its lots laid off in 
part, to the ancestors of some of our present inhabi- 
tants — of the Burgesses, Bournes, Swifts, Gibbs, 
Fearings — the blood of the dead still flowing in the 
veins of the living. Lots, for the support of the 
ministry, were reserved in Agawam, as early as 
1701. The locations at the west were made 1683, 
and were occupied by the ancestors of those who 
now bear the names of Bumpas, Briggs, Savery, 
and Benson. 

So late, on these thin lands, were the early settle- 
ments formed; and no wonder, when, even now, 
"the Plymouth woods," in which the deer run wild, 
occupy almost the entire distance between us and 
the Forefather Rock. 

Mr. Thatcher was called October 6, 1739, and died 
February 18, 1775. The trees he planted still adorn 
and shade the house which he built, and where he 
lived. Mr. Josiah Cotton was called August 21, 
1775, and dismissed in less than four years, May 31, 
1779 ; and lived many years at Plymouth, occupied 
in civil employments. The Rev. Noble Everitt 
was called June 3, and ordained October 15, 1782, 
and continued pastor till his death, in 1820, a period 
of nearly forty years. The Rev. Daniel Hemmen- 
way was ordained August, 1821, and dismissed in 
1828. The present pastor was installed August 5, 
1829. 

The present meeting-house, built in 1829, suc- 
ceeds one built on the same spot, 1770, and that, 
one standing near, which was received by the 
vote of the town, September 18, 1739. While we 



372 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

admire and love our beautiful house, who can 
fail to wish it were older, and that we could connect 
the events of a hundred years ago with the very- 
house where they occurred ? Who can fail to regret 
the disappearance of those old oaks, whose stumps 
and trunks remained in part when I came here, ten 
years ago, and whose branches must have sheltered 
and shaded Roland Thatcher, and deacons Gibbs, 
and Hamlin, and Blackmore, and Norris, and all the 
assembled people, one hundred years ago? Who 
can fail to regret, that if those oaks must decay, 
their place was not supplied by new plantings, em- 
blematic of the church that lives amidst dying gen- 
erations 1 Rather, who can fail to resolve this day 
to surround this temple with trees, which shall be 
for a memorial of our regard for God's house and 
God's ordinances, one hundred years hence? 

In thinking how I might profitably employ this 
hundredth anniversary" of a day we saw not — whose 
return we shall not see ; how I might benefit myself 
and the frail, dying men around me ; the text has 
occurred as the very lesson suited to our case — and 
equally suited to the new year, of which we have 
seen many returns — which we may, or may not, see 
again. 

Two views occur. 

1. No position is more fitted to receiving impress- 
ion of our frailty. " All flesh is as grass." 

2. No position is more fitted to make us behold in 
the church, and to welcome by the church, that 
which is substantial and enduring: " The word of 
the Lord endureth for ever." 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 373 

1. No position is fitter for receiving a deep im- 
pression of our frailty than that we occupy to-day. 

One hundred years ago this day, this central spot 
was occupied by a joyful assembly, in laying the first 
foundations of religious institutions, and at the same 
time in health and prosperity, and in the hopes of 
bright years of privilege and enjoyment. One hun- 
dred years ago to-morrow, the same company, and 
more, were gathered affectionately around a youth- 
ful pastor, about to be consecrated to their service, 
at the head of the new institution they had formed. 
Six other churches, by their pastors and delegates, 
were present; Middleborough, Rochester, Barnsta- 
ble, Plympton, met here on that joyful occasion, 
amidst the young men and maidens, the old men 
and children, of that day. Thenceforth, death has 
been occupied upon and around this spot, until the 
numbers of the population of that day may be twice 
told without exceeding the numbers of the dead ; 
and the century closes up with the largest number 
ever on the death-roll— -forty-two having been this 
year taken from us, and in a remarkable proportion 
from the most flourishing of the people. Thus we 
begin the year with the dead of a century before us. 
Two pastors, beloved and honored in their day — 
three, including Cotton, whose death followed his 
dismission — the church twice told, and the people 
twice told — sleeping beside us in their graves ! 
Thatcher — with his children, and grand-children, 
and great grand-children, and even the infant of the 
fifth generation, sleeping at his feet — and Everitt, 
with the church and people to whom they ministered 
32 



374 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

in their glory, lying around them — how still, how 
low, how " nothing," in the dust of death ! 

But there is another view, which is forced upon 
us in our position to-day, still more impressive. 
We have looked back a hundred years. Let us look 
forward a hundred. Let the dead of a century to 
come appear before us. Three pastors, or more, 
flourishing and fading away — the, church and the 
people twice told, by thousands falling and moulder- 
ing in their narrow house; ourselves foremost in 
that wasting throng — soonest turned, "ashes to 
ashes, dust to dust." Imagine the grave of Thatcher 
opened, and what will you find? Uncover the 
graves of yonder sanctuary, and what will you find 
of the living who flourished when this church was 
first formed, and when it received its first pastor, 
and of hundreds, who have sprung up and flourished 
as the grass? Imagine the graves of the coming 
century — of your present pastor — of these deacons — 
of this church — of this assembly — of this town — in 
the year 1940, when some pastor, yet unborn, shall 
stand as I do to-day, and hundreds are gathered 
around him. Let us anticipate the impressions they 
will get from our silent graves, and feel that our 
flesh is but grass, and all the goodliness of man as 
the flower of the field ! 

And this frailty of man — whence is it? Why 
passes away man, made in God's image, in his 
immortal nature, as the very flower of the field? 
Why partakes the immortal the accidents of mor- 
tality ? Why dies man, who, from his original 
nature, should not die ? Alas ! the impression of 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 375 

our frailty is an impression of the sinfulness which 
makes us frail. "Death passed upon all men, he- 
cause all have sinned." Our fathers, whom we 
rememher to-day, were sinners, and they died; and 
we are sinners, and shall die : therefore they have 
passed away, and therefore we shall pass away, as 
the grass of the field ! " Though I be nothing" 
was the text at the ordination of the Rev. Roland 
Thatcher ; and he has passed away as a thing of 
nought, and the church and people who called him, 
and who were seated under his ministry, and Ever- 
itt, and the greater part of his charge, also; and we 
who live like the grass and flowers, are hastening to 
pass away; and when the morning of the two 
hundredth anniversary shall arrive, then he who 
now speaks, and you who now hear, and the whole 
multitude of our population will he passed away, 
each and every one as a thing of nought ! — as grass 
and as the flowers. What first should mortal, be- 
cause sinful, man say, but this word which we 
inherit from the foundation of this church — " Though 
I be nothing" — or, in the language of our present 
text, " All flesh is as grass, and all the glory of man 
as the flower of grass?" 

2. No position can be more fitted to make us 
behold in the church " the word of God, which liveth 
and abideth for ever." 

What though the dead of a hundred years, as they 
lie by hundreds and thousands in their graves, and 
the dead of a hundred years to come — ourselves 
among the number — be gathered in our quickened 
vision before us ; what though not one of those who 



376 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

formed the living assembly, one hundred years ago, 
be here this day, nor one of this assembly can be 
here in 1940 ; what though ice must lie, that day, 
side by side with our fathers — the pastors, and the 
church, and the people, of many generations, side 
by side, tongue by tongue, ear by ear, hand by 
hand, foot by foot, heart by heart, and yet but dust 
by dust ; what though the living of a hundred years 
ago do not now meet us ; and we a hundred years 
hence cannot meet those who shall be then alive ; 
what though then, and long ere then, we must be as 
the grass and the flowers, which every summer live 
and die ; what though the fresh, young and joyous 
Thatcher of 1739, and the vigorous pastors who laid 
their hands on his young head, and all that assembly 
who saw the sight and rejoiced in the gift of Heaven, 
became long since as the very dust ; and what 
though he who now speaks, and you who now hear, 
hasten onward to the grave, "dust to dust;" — do 
we not hear "the word of God, which liveth and 
abideth for ever?" do we not see the church made 
alive, living and life-giving, by the word of God — by 
"the gospel with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven?" Is not the church formed one hundred 
years ago still alive? living while it dies ; living now 
by the life of those whose mortality has been 
swallowed up of life ; in the life of those who are 
following them to the dust of death ; themselves soon 
to be dead, and yet living and life-giving: leaving 
as they pass, the light of life in the midst of dying 
generations. "The grass withereth, the flower 
fadeth : but the word of the Lord endureth for ever." 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 377 

Life amidst death ! The living among the dead ! 
The church, amidst dying generations, still living 
and life-giving ! Ourselves ready to pass away into 
the very dust of death, receiving and transmitting a 
life that will never die ! This marvellous sight, 
which cheers and gladdens us to-day, is first and 
chiefly of the word of God, which liveth and abideth 
for ever — the incorruptible seed of a new and never- 
dying birth — " the gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent 
down from heaven ; " along the whole path of our 
frail and dying life — along the whole path of frail 
and dying generations. How near the fountain of 
immortal life ! how present amidst the very dust of 
death ! how abiding the Comforter given by the 
Saviour ! even as abiding as frailty, and fear, and 
sickness, and calamity, and death, along the whole 
path of mortal man. O, this is indeed life in the very 
midst of death, of which our mortal life is but the 
emblem and the shadow. This it is to become again 
a " living soul," though death is to pass upon us, 
because we have sinned. This is life, "to be born 
again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by 
the word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever." 
This is life, "to believe in God which raised up Christ 
from the dead ; " to cherish within a growing purity, 
"through the Spirit, unto unfeigned love; " to "lay 
aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and 
envies, and all evil speakings," — each infant grace 
thriving by the " sincere milk of the word." " The 
just shall live by faith." Wherever God's law is 
welcomed in the gospel — wherever it is adopted as a 
practicable rule, " with the Holy Ghost sent down 
32* 



378 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

from heaven " — there is the first breathing of immor- 
tal life ; and that infant life will grow through all 
time and through all eternity. The law of God as a 
governing and guiding principle — what is it, but the 
light of life glowing on the path of eternity, and 
guiding each mortal step to the true ends of immortal 
existence ? The gospel, with the Holy Ghost wel- 
comed to the soul — what is it, but the very life itself, 
enabling each step of that path, from strength to 
strength, with the wisdom and holiness of eternity 1 
To be right, and to do right, to be holy as God is 
holy, even with the feeble attempts of new-born 
and growing infancy — what is it, but to make earth's 
mortal moments the spring and source of immortal 
life? 

But we are called to notice especially to-day, the 
living and life-giving word as manifested in the 
church, living and life-giving by it, amidst the dying 
generations of men. Let us turn aside and see this 
great sight. The church of one hundred years ago 
dead and vanished, and yet living and visible before 
us ! " The bush is not consumed." " God is not the 
God of the dead, but of the living." The vital prin- 
ciple which breathed in the living church one hun- 
dred years ago this day — where is it now? Not in 
the silent grave, where the dead lie mouldered, but 
matured and glorious with God in heaven ! — and in 
their sons and their daughters, in the "just" of this 
present time, living by faith ; and it will pass upward 
with them when they die, and downward through 
all generations and all times. " God is not the God 
of the dead, but of the living." 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 379 

Behold, then, the church living and life-giving 
amidst the dead and the dying. One hundred years 
ago this church became an organized body, a social 
institution, bound together as one, by their mutual 
covenant to walk in all the ordinances of God; and 
though dying, it has lived by the ever-living word 
unto this day, and will still live in ages yet to come. 
Behold this house, the seat of our solemnities, fresh 
and undecayed as if the hand of time had never been 
upon it, though it occupies the place of two perish- 
able tabernacles ; and to be ever new in centuries to 
come, though it shall give place to others which 
shall yet arise. This ministry, too, is a living 
office, " though /be nothing " as all my predecessors 
were, as all my successors will be. A living pastor 
is here, as though Thatcher and Everitt were not 
dead; a living pastor will be here, though I and 
future pastors die. And those deacons, of a century 
ago, seem in our eye to have never ceased their 
rounds, and even now to be still bearing the 
emblems of the living word. Their office lives, and 
will live, as if now, and in ages to come, those 
ancient officers were still serving successive genera- 
tions. The church thus organized — abiding in its 
undecaying temple, with its living ministry and 
officers — liveth still, as though the church of a cen- 
tury ago were yet alive ; as if they had not passed 
away. Rather, the dead have passed into a per- 
fected and glorified life ; leaving to their children 
and their children's children the same life in the 
living and life-giving word : — the dead which are 
still alive ; the living who are yet to die partakers in 



380 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

their degree of immortal life — and passing it down 
to future generations, even as it was signified at the 
burning bush: of the dead, God saying, I am the 
God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of 
Jacob : and to the living, " The Lord God of your 
fathers hath sent me unto you. . . This is my name 
for ever, and this is my memorial unto all genera- 
tions." 

On the 11th of June, 1635, Anthony Thatcher, 
the pious ancestor of the first pastor of this church, 
was shipwrecked between Ipswich and Marblehead, 
and, with his wife, formed the only surviving rem- 
nant of twenty-three persons who embarked together 
— four of them being his own children. A cradle 
coverlet of scarlet broadcloth was saved from the 
wreck, and has been handed down through many 
generations, as a baptismal covering for the children 

of the name of Thatcher This church 

arose into being, and rejoiced in the dew of its 
youth, under a pastor who received his own life 
in the gospel from a long line of pious ancestors, 
and who transmitted it remarkably to a Christian 
race, under the seal of the covenant with believers 
and their children, which, as we think, has come in 
place of the ancient seal prescribed to the father 
of the faithful. And in that covenant it lives this 
day ; under the assurance, ' ' The Lord God of 
your fathers hath sent me unto you. . . This is my 
name for ever, and this is my memorial to all gen- 
erations." 

I would feel less willing to make the assertion of 
the living and life-giving church, if it required that I 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 381 

should sustain it by a direct reference to the living ; 
though I trust there are living epistles that would 
approve what I say. There must be, if we are 
indeed a living church. But this last year of the 
century has closed up the history of an unusual 
number who but lately were with us, and bore their 
part in forming the character of our visible body ; 
may we not take them as in some degree exhibiting 
the character of that great company whom they 
have joined, and of the living church from which 
they have passed away 1 I thank God that I can 
direct your attention to a cluster of church members, 
who but the past year have departed from us, adorn- 
ing the doctrine of their Saviour. Surely they who 
have just gone to join the host of living fathers, can- 
not have been removed from a dead church. Seven 
of our actual members, and eight including the last 
death of the year of one long in our actual com- 
munion, have passed away from us; and without 
being particular in our statement, we may say that 
they embraced great excellences of Christian char- 
acter — great freedom from the common imperfections 
of humanity. The word of the Lord, which liveth 
and abideth for ever, lived in them while they lived, 
and we are deeply convinced lives in them now that 
they are dead. They obeyed the truth through the 
Spirit unto unfeigned love of the brethren ; remarka- 
bly laying aside malice, and guile, and evil speaking, 
and living while they lived upon the sincere milk of 
the word ; who can doubt that they died as they 
lived, only finishing their course — only receiving the 
crown laid up for them — only entering the past year 



382 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

upon the immortal life which they began to live in 
their mortal bodies — that the year of their perishing, 
like the grass and the flowers, is their entrance on an 
enduring and eternal life ? 

And if they that are just gone from us have mani- 
festly passed through death to a better and an en- 
during life — if we almost saw the glory in which 
they departed, and if we behold them with God in 
life and glory — and if they are $ut the last of a mul- 
titude who have been passing away from the very 
formation of this church, how can we help seeing 
the living church this day invested in their glory, 
itself manifestly living by the w r ord of God — mani- 
festly amidst all its imperfections, a chosen genera- 
tion, a royal priesthood, a peculiar people, showing 
forth the praises of him who hath called them out of 
darkness into his marvellous light. 

In thus considering the past year as a specimen of 
years preceding, and then again as a specimen of the 
living members of the church, and then again as a 
specimen of the life in death which in their course 
will be manifest from them, and from their descen- 
dants in future times, I am confirmed by a consider- 
ation of the two last cases — tracing them as I do, 
from their quiet and peaceful death, to the very day 
which we now commemorate; the word of God 
having flowed down upon them from the day when 
this church was formed and the first minister w^as set 
over it. Whence sprung that faith — how flowed that 
word of God to the last death-bed, giving life and 
peace ! Our departed sister drew her descent from 
two of the forty-three members who united in solemn 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 383 

covenant one hundred years ago this day. Her 
grandmother, their daughter, was baptized in the 
year 1745, and became, in the year 1771, a member 
of this church, and adorned her profession for several 
years after I became its pastor. Her mother was 
baptized in the year 1785 ; and thus in the line of 
natural descent, and by the ordinances of the Lord's 
house, did the word of God descend to comfort her 
dying bed, and to begin in her, as we trust, the life 
everlasting. The preceding instance also derived 
the faith which adorned her life and blessed her 
death from her grandfather, the first pastor of this 
church — the Rev. Roland Thatcher — whose les- 
sons she received in childhood, and from whom she 
inherited the blessing of many generations. 

I might go on to confirm this testimony from the 
past year — by referring to the history of the years 
since I have been in charge as pastor — and might 
speak of numerous worthies, and especially of the 
last worthies of the old stock, in whom we might be 
supposed most distinctly to trace the influence of the 
olden time. Of those who were gathered into this 
church under its first pastor, one only remains, bear- 
ing the infirmities of old age with a patience which 
assures us that she did not receive the word of God 
in vain, from the lips of Thatcher, nor falsely take 
the covenant into which she entered with God, and 
with this church, August 2, 1772. Of that old stock, 
three others only remained on my becoming pastor of 
this church — viz., the widow Sarah Briggs, daughter 
of William Blackmore, chosen deacon January, 
1743 ; widow Charity McKie, admitted March 29, 



384 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

1772; and the widow Elizabeth Bumpas, the mother 
of one of our present deacons, and of several mem- 
bers of our present church. I speak but what I 
have heard of these specimens of our early church ; 
and what in my few years of acquaintance seemed 
most true, when I say, that they lived before us to 
extreme old age, nourishing like the palm-tree, and 
growing like the cedar in Lebanon, in the strength 
of that word of life which they received in their 
early youth, and in the nurture of the house of God, 
of which they became members and inmates in their 
youthful covenant, under the advantages of enduring 
ordinances — of permanent means of grace. Planted 
in the Lord's house, they nourished in the courts of 
the Lord, some of them even in their years of neces- 
sary separation from public worship bringing forth 
fruit in old age, showing to the new generation and 
to us that the Lord is upright, their Rock, and that 
there is no unrighteousness in him. Two references 
will intimate the substantial source and the perma- 
nent means of their steadfast and fruitful piety. I 
refer first to the words, I had almost said for ever on 
the lips of our sister, the widow McKie, in her last 
years, and yet never repeated to weariness, — " We 
must believe that God is, and that he is the re warder 
of them that seek him." It has seemed to me that 
this ancient maxim, descending from Enoch, before 
the flood, through all believers, was but a recollec- 
tion of her earliest faith, a repetition of her youthful 
experience, when she breathed in the living word 
from the last counsels of Thatcher, the source of life 
on earth and for ever. The other reference is to a 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 385 

remark of the living remnant of that ancient day. 
It appears from the records, that the year 1772 
was one of the most remarkable in the annals of 
this church, especially when we consider the small- 
ness of the population. In the year 1771, eight 
were admitted; in the year 1772, thirty-four; in 
the year 1773, nine; in the year 1774, five. — 
The Rev. Roland Thatcher died February 18, 
1775 ; and thus his last four years were crowned 
with success, and judging from the fruits which 
remained unto our day, with a remarkable value 
for the living word and the appointed ordinances, 
and with corresponding fruitfulness, as might be 
expected from the method by which they received 
their benefit ; — We lived upon the Sabbath and the 
house of God, after we went from it ; and we were 
reaching after and longing for the returning oppor- 
tunity. The general interest overspread the town; 
but the great and almost the only means were the 
established ordinances of religion, — not means or 
methods only for a season, nor a word with a tran- 
sient power. Thence they " still brought forth fruit 
in old age." 

What, then, do we see, as we look upon the 
mouldered dead of the century gone by ? Is it not 
the church, living and life-giving, by the word of 
God, which liveth and abideth for ever, — passed 
down from the fathers to their children, — and pass- 
ing down in its living power to the century, to ages 
which are to follow ? and the community covered 
with the glory of the church, compassed in that sea 
of life in which it breathes and lives? If all the 
33 



386 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

Israelites had some part in the covenant of Abraham, 
even before they took it as their own, so have now 
all the people some part in the covenant which binds 
the church into one living body. If all the Israelites 
were called forth from the burning bush to trust in 
the strong hand and outstretched arm of their 
fathers' God — to pass under the same cloud, and 
drink of the same rock, though with many of them 
God was not well pleased; so are all this people 
called forth from the church, living among the dead, 
by the word of God — encompassed with the Holy 
Ghost sent down from heaven, and followed by the 
living waters from the Rock, which is Christ. You 
may refuse "the ministration of the Spirit," exceed- 
ing all the glory of the ancient dispensation, but it is 
upon you and around you, for your deliverance or 
your overthrow. You may refuse to go forth into 
the good land and large, bringing blessings with 
you to the multitude, who shall join your welcome 
to your fathers' God ; but that shall not disannul his 
word, or render his promise of none effect. He is 
still the God of the living, who lie dead before you — 
of the dying, who will live with them for ever ! Our 
God, if we will receive and obey him, appearing 
before us, speaking to us, as from the burning bash. 
Hearer ! put off thy shoes from off thy feet, for the 
place whereon thou standest is holy ground ! Hide 
thy face, in fear to look upon God, shining forth and 
speaking in this living and abiding institution ! 
Hearken and hear his assurance of blessing upon 
you, exceeding all the blessings on your fathers ; 
according to the promises in which they trusted, and 
by which they live with him for ever. " I am the 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 3S7 

God of thy fathers. I have surely seen the affliction 
of my people ; and I am come down to lead them 
forth to a good land and a large. The Lord God of 
your fathers hath sent you his messenger, saying, 
This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial 
to all generations." 

In view of the manifestations of this day — of the 
church living among the dead, and glowing in the 
promise of life for ages yet to come — what a sacred- 
ness has this spot, this very spot of earth, the centre 
of the living word in generations past, and for ages 
and ages yet to come ! What a sacredness has this 
house, seeming before our eyes the temple that has 
been a hundred years past ; the temple that will be 
for a hundred and hundreds of years to come ! 
What a sacredness have these "ordinances of divine 
service;" the Scriptures read every Sabbath day; 
the prayers, after the manner of the Lord's prayer ; 
the psalms and hymns, passed down from the 
ancient temple by our Lord himself; the sermons, 
which "become sound doctrine;" and the sacra- 
ments, which show forth and confirm the living 
word ! The things Which were, are ! The things 
which are, will be, living in their might and glory 
for ages yet to come. Tread not lightly on this 
consecrated ground ! Enter not lightly this temple, 
glowing in the glory of the past and of the future. 
Wake from your sleep, awed by the visions which 
have seemed hitherto as unreal dreams, and say, 
like the patriarch at the first Bethel, " Surely the 
Lord was in this place, and I knew it not. How 
awful is this place ! Surely it is none other than 
the house of God, and the very gate of heaven ! " 



388 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

What a sacredness has this church — frail as the 
grass — death passing upon it from age to age, be- 
cause they have sinned ; yet coming unto Christ as 
unto a living stone, built up. as lively stones, a 
spiritual house, standing in its glory amidst the 
dying generations of men ! Think not lightly of 
this undecaying temple of the living God ! There 
may be false members, as there was a Judas in the 
church at the first Lord's supper, — but the living 
walls stand firm on this centennial anniversary, and 
promise to be firm for the ages which shall follow ! 
There may be fickleness and change, but there has 
been, there will be, an unfailing succession true to 
their profession and their Lord, as the pendulum to 
the centre of the earth — as the needle to the pole ! 

What a sacredness has the word of God, living 
and abiding for ever — the gospel which is preached 
unto you with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven ! Think not lightly of its power, or of your 
own power in it ; of your own privilege and hazard 
under the gift of the Spirit ! The grave-yard 3'onder, 
with its dead of a hundred years, awaiting the dead 
of a hundred years to come — the symbol of our 
frailty : its " dust to dust, ashes to ashes," calling us 
to the fellowship of the dead ; is the symbol of the 
living word, of the life-giving Spirit pervading the 
whole scene of human frailty, encompassing the 
grass and the flowers ere they fade and die, that 
they may imbibe a new and never-dying life ! 
Wherever man faints and is weary, tending to the 
grave ; wherever the mourners go about the streets 
bearing the dead to their graves,— there is the word 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 389 

of God, which liveth and abideth for ever ; the gos- 
pel, u with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven," 
calling us to the fellowship of the living, who through 
death have passed into immortal life. 

What a sacredness has this office in which I stand 
before you this day — the living among the dead ! 
Think not lightly of that office which Christ con- 
tinues among you from generation to generation, for 
" the perfecting of the saints, for the work of the 
ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ." 
Think not lightly of me, who stand before you this 
day, u though I be nothing," if in the lowest degree 
" the signs of an apostle are wrought among you." 
I should ill bear the mantle of Thatcher and Everitt, 
your pastors who, we doubt not, are living with God 
on high, if I could not claim, in some humble degree, 
your regard to me as a partaker of the same word 
by which they live, and as its apostle to yourselves. 
Think not lightly of me ; nor think it impossible that 
I may have commission to lead you forth into a good 
land and a large, with the strong hand and out- 
stretched arm of the Almighty. Measure not the 
future by the past, either of my ministry, or of your 
whole history; but by the power of that promise in 
which Moses went forth from the burning bush ; in 
which Joshua led the convinced and persuaded 
tribes to the promised land. The glory which shines 
upon us this day, will not be rightly welcomed by 
admiration of the past : but by going forth from the 
signs of this day in all the glory and power of a 
living and life-giving church ; breaking the chains 
which have restrained us, and pressing forward to 
33* 



390 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

all the blessings to which we are called. Let us 
note, then, not only what this institution has done 
for us, but what it has left undone ; not only how 
rich are its provisions, but how poor has been our 
acceptance; if haply we may welcome it in its 
glory. 

What multitudes, for instance, are aliens from the 
Lord's house ! Atheists or infidels, in form, even 
within the house of prayer for all people ! It was 
not unsuitable, though it was not so designed, to 
close the first century of this institution by a special 
effort in behalf of public worship ; and it is not un- 
suitable, this day, to bewail those who still neglect 
it ; who refuse to enter the house of prayer, which 
they inherit from their fathers. Let us renew, at the 
beginning of the second century, the call which 
closed the first. Let the call go forth, then, for 
public worship, from the whole public, and let the 
impulse, and the example, and the custom, pass 
down a century and centuries to come. The God 
of your fathers calls the whole people to worship 
him. 

And those who do come, how do they fall short 
in the purpose of their coming ! How do they fail 
even to apprehend ivhere they are, as they enter the 
house of prayer — as they come to the mercy-seat, 
under the wings of the cherubim, under the out- 
poured flood of the Holy Ghost ! How little do 
they welcome his renewing power ! How little do 
they welcome his presence upon all the paths of 
life ! Alas, that such multitudes should pass 
through the cloud, and before the flood of waters 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 391 

from the spiritual rock, and know it not ! — should 
meet the gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down 
from heaven, and know it not ! Alas, that multi- 
tudes should give their seeming welcome to the word 
and Spirit, to become withered and fruitless, instead 
of bringing forth fruit a hundred fold ! Alas, that in 
the very church itself so many should fail to behold 
with open face the glory of the Lord, and to be 
changed into the same image from glory to glory, 
even as by the Spirit of the Lord ! 

Thus we have the ancient and permanent institu- 
tion, and in it and with it the word and Spirit 
abiding for ever, with what small effect — with what 
interrupted influence — with what transient and spu- 
rious results ! The cloud covering all — the water 
gushing for all — the manna falling for all — the word 
spoken for all — the Spirit poured out for all — and 
yet what multitudes still unaccepting, and un- 
blessed ! 

This state of things — the word of God without 
free course, where the whole way is open — the 
veiled' face, where the Spirit of the Lord brings 
liberty and encouragement — man's objections and 
man's difficulties stopping up the way which God's 
grace, and wisdom, and power, have opened — man's 
interruptions and delays coming in where God has 
given a Spirit abiding for ever — and man's defi- 
ciency, where the Holy Ghost is poured forth like a 
flood — is worthy of peculiar note, as we close the 
century which measures our existence as a church, 
viz., from 1740 to 1840, marked with the revival of 
religion at its commencement and in its closing 
years. 



392 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

Alas ! the revivals of 1740, and again the revivals 
of 1795, which have not ceased until this day, need 
to be succeeded by a new order of revivals, if they 
have brought us under such hindrances as these, 
if they have turned us away from the word which 
abideth for ever, with the Holy Ghost sent down 
from heaven, and from the ordinances abiding for 
ever, and have made us, instead, welcome temporary 
and transient powers, and satisfied us with tempo- 
rary and transient effects — with joy, instead of en- 
durance in the word — choked and sickly plants, 
instead of fruits an hundred fold — backslidings, and 
dull times, instead of the path of the just, shining 
brighter and brighter to the perfect day ! 

Rather, let us believe that Whitefield, and Wesley, 
and Edwards, and Tennant did but rise by the w r ord 
and Spirit which were before their day, and that we 
are departing from the principles which blessed 
1740 ; and that the New Lights and the old lights of a 
hundred years ago were alike mistaken, when they 
expected reviving as a matter of times and seasons, 
and when they refused the quickening influence of 
the Spirit which abideth for ever. And let us be- 
lieve that, amidst the movements of the present 
day, they are mistaken alike who would leave men 
to their stupor and neglect, and who would limit 
their opportunity — who would be satisfied with reli- 
gious indifference, and who expect religious recovery 
only from special dispensations, and at times inter- 
rupted necessarily by backsliding churches and torpid 
communities. The impulse which religion has re- 
ceived, certainly in this country, requires a new 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 393 

direction ; and the community need to awake to the 
fearful danger of slighting, and resisting, and refus- 
ing the word and the Spirit which abide for ever, and 
to the true privilege and opportunity of the Christian 
dispensation. 

As we begin this century, let us understand where 
we are : not where there need be one backsliding or 
neglectful believer — not where there need be one 
sinner debarred any time, at any interval, from seek- 
ing the Lord, from forsaking his way, from living by 
the word and Spirit. Let us understand that there 
never was, that there never will be, that there never 
can be, any word of God, or any dispensation of it, 
that shall be absolutely effective, loithout personal 
intention and co?npliance ; and, on the other hand, 
that there never was, that there never will be, that 
there never can be, a moment, or a day, or a year, 
or a course of years, in which the word is not worthy 
of all acceptation — in which the word and the Spirit 
are not all-powerful to enable and to save ; assured, 
that, like as all Israel passed through the cloud and 
through the sea — were all fed from the skies, and 
drank from the rock, and were gathered round the 
tabernacle and the temple — even so are all we en- 
dowed with God's living word, overshadowed by 
his renewing Spirit, to be saved or to be lost ! — that, 
as God called all Israel, from the unconsumed bush, 
to their full opportunity, and to their fearful peril — 
so, in sight of this living church, does God call all 
the people to their full and perfect opportunity, under 
the word and Spirit, and to their fearful peril, to 
believe in him and be saved, or to limit the Holy 



394 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

One of Israel, and be lost. This is the living word, 
the living institution, which meets you to-day. Be- 
ware how you meet it ! 

Be this the revival of 1840 ! — the welcome of the 
word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever — of 
the gospel, with the Holy Ghost sent down from 
heaven, flooding the house of prayer for all people 
from Pentecost until now ! — a revival pervading the 
nation and the world ; many people saying one to 
another, Come ye, and let us go up to the mountain 
of the Lord, to the house of the God of Jacob, for he 
will teach us of his ways, and we will walk in his 
paths. Be this, at least, the revival that we seek, 
that we pray for, that we labor for, viz., "On the 
unchanging and eternal principles of God's word, 
and by taking heed to those principles as we have 
never done before — by our mixing faith with the 
words we hear — by our believing welcome of the 
ever-present Spirit."^ Be this the blessing that 
we transmit to the next century, and to ages yet to 
come : the living and life-giving word — the gospel, 
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, 
abiding in the house of prayer for all people. The 
future is not to be measured by the past. History is 
not prophecy ; but there glow in the annals of the 
church, amidst all darkness, principles which are to 
triumph and prevail. From the covenant of the 
patriarchs, from the unconsumed bush, the people 
shall be led forth, if they believe, when they believe, 
into all the mercy of the promised land. From this 

*Page 158. 



THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 395 

church, alive amidst the dead, if we believe, when 
we believe, we shall go forth into blessings, beyond 
all that we or our fathers have known. 

Be this the blessing which we transmit to those 
who shall succeed us on this sacred spot — to those 
who shall meet in joyful anniversary, one hundred 
years from this day, in 1940. " The grass wither- 
eth, and the flower thereof falleth away, but the 
word of the Lord endureth for ever ; and this is the 
word which by the gospel is preached unto you." 
Your name may be forgotten ; no descendant may 
cherish your memory; no stone tell that your dust 
once composed a living frame; but if you receive 
this word, you will then be alive with God, and 
your life will be perpetuated on earth, in those who 
live by the influence of your life. Your name may 
pass to your descendants, and the stream of immor- 
tal life be traced through generations dead to your 
life by the word in these courts to-day. This 
church — its living unity — will not die; the living 
stream will pass down and bless those who shall 
welcome its covenant, and its symbols, and its doc- 
trines, and its worship, and its abiding Spirit, even 
as we attempt to do this day. The pastor, also, 
will have his memorial, on another, and another 
centennial anniversary, for the good or evil of his 
ministry. Would that it might be in principles and 
examples, which shall prove the fountains of life 
from generation to generation ! Would that it might 
be in establishing this church and people upon their 
ancient foundations — in recalling them to the cove- 
nant of their fathers, and in leading them forth 



396 THE CENTENNIAL OF PUBLIC WORSHIP. 

into the good land and the large, which is open 
before them ! Would that it might be, in the hum- 
blest degree, in giving freer scope to the "word of 
God, which endure th for ever" — to the gospel. 
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven — in a 
revival, which shall grow and prevail until 1940, 
losing itself in that universal influence which shall 
cover the whole earth as the waters do the sea ! 



NOTE TO PAGE 295. 



THE AUTHOR S ANSWER, AS TO PREACHING THE DOCTRINE 
OF ELECTION, FEB. 26, 1840. 

1. As to the doctrines of foreknowledge, decree, election, I have 
long been accustomed to say, that, in some sense, I cannot help 
believing them. For, I cannot help considering omniscience, 
i. e., aZZ-knowledge, as a necessary attribute of the Godhead; 
and, of course, all-knowledge, at any period of the divine exist- 
ence (speaking after the manner of men), as including the 
knowledge of all things, whether before or after; as the Scrip- 
tures assert: "Known unto God are all his works from the 
foundation of the world." Of course, I cannot help considering 
the doctrines of /ore-knowledge, decree, election, in regard to 
all things, persons, and events, as, in some sense, true; the 
necessary consequence of the doctrine universally allowed, viz., 
of the divine omniscience. 

And yet I say, only in some sense indefinite, and inexplicable 
to my apprehension, and not in the sense most obvious to the 
hum an faculties; not in the sense and with the conclusions which 
seem to follow logically in the track of the human understand- 
ing; since, adopting the most obvious sense, the most logical 
conclusions, I find myself immediately far astray from the declar- 
ations, and commands, and offers, and promises, and threaten- 
ings of God's word — from my revealed privilege and duty — and, 
of course, in so far, a sense not true; a sense contrary to my 
own intuitive knowledge of myself, and to the revealed account 
of the divine nature, and, in so far, not true; a sense contradic- 

34 



398 NOTE. 

tory to other attributes, and, in so far, not true. I forbear to 
pursue a track, where, at every step, I meet contradiction to 
intuitive perceptions, to first truths, and even to other lines of 
argument as sound and conclusive; and turn back, assured that 
a doctrine, in some sense true, is not true in the forms of our 
logic, under the incumbrance of our conclusions. 

2. This expression, in some sense indefinite, and not in the 
sense most obvious to the human faculties, seems to me required 
by the assertions of Scripture. Thus: "Elect according to the 
foreknowledge of God, through sanctification of the Spirit unto 
obedience," especially compared with the whole Epistles of 
Peter, requires that the word elect be understood in some sense 
indefinite, which is according to foreknowledge of men according 
to their nature, as capable of obedience and faith, and making 
" their calling and election sure." 

Of course, knowledge, foreknowledge of all things from the 
foundation of the world, must, like our knowledge, when it 
exists, be of each and all things in their several kinds, and can 
never be at variance with the very things known; the knowledge 
of human character being necessarily according to its kind; as 
the knowledge of animals, or trees, or stones, must be according 
to their kinds; and, therefore, not in the sense most obvious to 
the human faculties proceeding logically; not in the sense with 
which poor infant humanity is wont to embarrass itself; not in 
the sense which contradicts the first principles of the nature of 
God's highest creatures, but, in some sense indefinite, consistent 
with those principles. It cannot be, that a thing can be fore- 
known in any sense contrary to its nature when it comes to be 
known. "Known unto God," in some sense, was the bursting 
of the steam-boiler, from the foundation of the world; but how 
diversely known according to the diverse things thus known. 
The boiler is both known and foreknown to burst by a natural 
law — the expansive power of steam; but it was known and fore- 
known to be in the condition to burst, on a steamboat, by the 
inventive operations of intelligent and active beings, made in 
God's image; and, again, the catastrophe was both known and 
foreknown to be brought about by lust conceived, bringing forth 
the sin of avarice, or rivalry, or intemperance; and not by any 



NOTE. 399 

man's being tempted of God. The principle here referred to 
is unfolded, in pp. 58, 59 of " Sermons from the Fowls of the 
Air and the Lilies of the Field." 

3. Hence, of course, I suppose that foreknowledge, decree, 
election, true in some sense indefinite, are not true in such sense 
as to be leading ideas in God's moral government, or in his rev- 
elation to man; and, of course, that in making them leading 
ideas, we put them, in a sense not true, at variance with man's 
privilege and duty; embarrassing and perplexing sincere minds, 
and perverting the insincere — not by the sense which is true, but 
by the defined and humanized sense, which is not true; i. e., by 
a human definition of a divine attribute — by human logic, from 
premises above our apprehension. 

The danger of the human mind, in making a leading idea of a 
human apprehension, and the necessity of limiting our conclu- 
sions from the divine attributes to some sense indefinite, I will 
illustrate by a brief reference to an instance which made a deep 
impression upon my mind in early life. 

No truth is more manifest than the absolute sinlessness of the 
divine nature. Would it be thought unsafe to allow a human 
apprehension of that attribute to go forth in unrestrained logic 
to the issues that seem correct to man ? So the Hindoo does. 
He believes in the absolute sinlessness of the Great Supreme, 
and therefore, in his necessary and utter separation from affairs; 
in an idle Deity ! concluded by poor human reasoning from 
the sinlessness of Deity; an open door for gods many — three 
hundred and thirty millions, to do the business of the world, which 
a sinless Deity, of course, cannot touch, and remain sinless! To 
conduct the affairs of the universe were pollution! What a les- 
son to those who should better know the true God — who infer, 
from God's knowledge, that there are no creatures truly capable 
of choice and act, of praise and blame in the fullest sense — who, 
from an attribute of theism, make either a pantheism, or a 
machine — who exclude a moral governor, and a moral empire, 
to be governed, by their logic, in regard to the natural attri- 
butes of Deity! 

4. In thus forbearing to make foreknowledge, decree, election, 
leading ideas; in thus limiting my necessary conclusions to some 



400 NOTE. 

sense indefinite, and excluding the sense most obvious to the 
human faculties, I do, but as all find themselves compelled to do, 
who would not run headlong into fatalism, universalism, and 
infidelity. If, as I think many do, they swim out, teacher and 
taught, into the deep sea of divine knowledge, how soon do they 
find themselves sinking in fathomless depths, and compelled to 
make their utmost exertions to reach again the safe shore, from 
which they should not have heedlessly departed. Happy, indeed, 
when such a teacher, and those so taught, all get to the shore 
again; when none are left to sink in the depths of fatalism, 
universalism, and infidelity! 

I am justified in this view by the most orthodox creeds, which 
do thus withdraw from the place of leading ideas, the very doc- 
trines which they have too prominently set forth. It is remark- 
able that those creeds which do most distinctly declare the 
doctrines referred to, as leading ideas, do, after all, disallow the 
conclusions into which human reasonings would plunge us; do 
themselves sail back from the deep sea, in which they find 
themselves sinking. After they have forbidden us to say, in 
some sense indefinite, they withdraw the whole defined and hu- 
man sense, and all the logical conclusions — disallow- every sense 
which interferes with God's justice and grace, with man's duty 
and privilege. As well to have adopted our phrase, in some 
sense indefinite, and never have plunged into those deeps at all! 
Let us turn to the Assembly's Confession of Faith, for example. 
Thus, chapter 3, after asserting the divine decree, it is added, 
" Yet so" (i. e., of course, decree is to be understood in some 
sense indefinite, not as a leading idea), "Yet so as thereby 
neither is God jthe author of sin, nor is violence offered to the 
will of the creatures, nor is the liberty or contingency of second 
causes taken away, but rather established." Of course, not in 
the sense in which our minds conclude it, reasoning logically: 
but in some sense which is suited to the nature of each grade 
and order of beings which God has formed. Thus the Assembly 
of Divines, as if the sense were definite, sail into deep waters; 
but finding them too deep, and feeling themselves sinking into 
fatalism, universalism and infidelity, sail back again to the point 
from which they started, and allow the phrase, only in some 
sense indefinite. 



NOTE. 401 

So again, after having given a defined sense to the " decree of 
election," and, if fully allowed, at variance with the saving 
clauses just now quoted, they again save themselves justly and 
truly, saying, section 8, of chapter 3, " The doctrine of this high 
mystery of predestination is to be handled" (and if to be hand- 
led, is to be believed) "with special prudence and care" 
(i. e., not to be assumed according to our limitations, in our 
defined sense, as a leading idea) ; " that men, attending the will 
of God as revealed in his word, and yielding obedience thereunto, 
may, from the certainty of their effectual vocation, be assured of 
their eternal election." 

The like drawing back into some sense indefinite, appears, 
manifestly, in chapter 9, of free will,, where, section 1, it is 
said, " God hath endued the will of man with that natural lib- 
erty, that it is neither forced, nor, by any absolute necessity of 
nature, determined to good or evil." Of course, answer 7 of 
the Shorter Catechism, though expressed too much in a defined 
and human sense, is admissible; and thus, as a minister of the 
Presbyterian church, did I give it my assent, inasmuch as that it 
admits of being understood in some sense indefinite, even in its 
own terms, and is required to be so understood by the collateral 
and full expressions of the Confession of Faith, and by every 
word of duty and privilege, which that mainly beautiful summary 
contains. 

The corresponding article in the creed of this particular church 
gives a similar latitude. Thus, it asserts, " You believe that 
God hath from everlasting elected a number to eternal life." 
Undoubtedly, in some sense, he foreknew, decreed, elected, and 
in such a sense as belongs to the nature of beings formed in his 
likeness, as is consistent with every duty he requires and every 
privilege he offers. Let the next article answer in what sense : 
" You believe all God's elect will in time be united with Jesus 
Christ by faith, and justified by his grace." They who believe 
are elect. 

But it is more important to say, that the Scriptures do not 
present these doctrines as leading ideas — do not allow them in 
the defined and human sense, but only in some sense indefinite; 
i. e., a sense which applies to each individual in its nature and 



402 NOTE. 

kind. And hence the freedom of Scripture, in all commands, 
and offers, and threatenings; regarding man in all the freedom 
and powers that belong not to the stone, or the machine, or the 
animal, but to man in his own high scale of being. The Scrip- 
tures do not carry out infants of one year, or ten, or twenty, 
or fifty, or seventy, into the deep sea of divine attributes, to 
sink or swim, on the presumption that God's ways are as our 
ways, and his thoughts as our thoughts. 

Take, for instance, Romans 8, 9, 10, 11, and, admitting the 
interpretation which involves the ordinary difficulties, we must 
then ask, what is the foreknowledge, and the predestination, 
and election, which the apostle intends, and with what conclu- 
sions are they encumbered ? And the answer inevitably is, that 
these terms are to be understood only in some sense indefinite, 
and free from all embarrassing conclusions; in such a sense as 
is consistent with every conceivable caution: " Be not high- 
minded, but fear;" with every conceivable necessity and power 
of personal faith and unbelief: "Well, because of unbelief they 
were broken off, and thou standest by faith;" with every con- 
ceivable freeness of the gospel for the whole earth, and with 
every conceivable capability of prayer: " For there is no differ- 
ence between the Jew and the Greek; for the same Lord over 
all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall 
call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." If, then, 
the apostle has plunged you into deep waters, you will find 
yourself on the shore again, if you will accept his guidance in 
such words as these. Whatever the apostle asserts of fore- 
knowledge, predestination, election, he asserts only in some 
sense indefinite, not as leading ideas; not in the sense which 
makes God's agency every thing, and man's agency nothing, 
but which combines both, according to the mystery of nature 
and revelation; which admits the fullest scope to the ideas of 
duty and privilege — of law to responsible beings — of faith, and 
prayer, and action to dependent beings — and, of course, not in 
the sense most obvious to the human faculties — not such as our 
limited minds conceive, when we follow out the divine attributes. 
The difficulty commonly made from Romans 8, 9, and 11, is 
therefore not only not scriptural — it is not Pauline; i. e., does 



NOTE. 403 

not belong to Paul's writings, nor even to these particular parts 
of this particular Epistle. If he asserts, as some think, the fore- 
knowledge, decree, election, in regard to each particular indi- 
vidual; and if the power of the potter be brought in illustration; 
most plainly, comparing the apostle with the apostle himself, 
and even 8, 9, 11 of Romans with 8, 9, 11 of Romans, it is 
only in some sense, and in such sense as, however inexplicable, 
is consistent with the freest agency, the most unclay-like nature, 
the freest call to prayer and duty, and the fullest connection of 
human choice and decision with the salvation of men; i. e., 
Paul's preaching of the doctrine of election, if as distinct and 
special as some think, leaves us not in the deep waters into 
which we are wont to plunge, but, brought back to the solid 
grounds of duty and privilege, of choice, and faith, and prayer — 
leaves us only in some sense believing it, and that not in the 
sense to which our infant reasoning inevitably leads us. 

5. I proceed, finally, to remark on my own course, as a minis- 
ter, in regard to the doctrine of election. 

If, by preaching the doctrine of election, be intended the going 
forth, according to my limited faculties, into all the conclusions, 
from foreknowledge, which seem natural and necessary to my 
own infant reasonings — an infant of fifty years being as incom- 
petent here as an infant of fifty days; — if, by preaching election, 
be intended the making divine sovereignty and predetermination, 
or even foreknowledge, according to my weak conception of 
them, the leading idea of all my preaching, or even of any single 
discourse, then do I most scrupulously abstain from preaching 
the doctrine of election; because, in that sense, as a leading 
idea, according to poor human conception, it is not true to man 
or to God — to Scripture, or St. Paul — to the book of Romans, 
or to Romans 8, 9, 11; because it is not in a conditio?! to be true 
— cannot be inwoven with a gospel to be received and obeyed — 
with the words of prayer and praise — with the Lord's prayer. 
Such a sermon fails of being true, as really as a Hindoo homily 
on the sinlessness of the Great Supreme. 

I do not allow myself, even in conversation, nor sanction in 
others, such a leading idea as this: "It was to be so" — "It 
will be as it was appointed;" nor can I, unless I would be a 



404 NOTE. 

Mahometan or a Hindoo, a universalist or an infidel. I cannot 
make, much less enlarge on, as a leading idea, any assertion 
which denies human duty or privilege, whether of heart or act, 
or that hinders " the contingency of second causes." 

But if the great thing intended by those good men who set forth 
election, and decree, and foreknowledge, as leading ideas, in the 
senses and conclusions most obvious to the human faculties, and 
which has given them the misnomer of doctrines of grace, be, 
that salvation from beginning to end is all of God — his free 
provision for, and gift to, rebellious man; that, from first to last, 
not one step is taken, but with the influence of the Holy Ghost, 
striving, moving, renewing, sanctifying — enabling man to draw 
water out of the wells of salvation — so that man's is all the 
guilt and sin, and God's all the glory; then is election, in sub- 
stance, mixed in with all I preach, and say, and do, and think, 
and pray — with all my hopes and fears — with all my life; as 
the excellent John Newton said, " Like sugar in my tea, in 
every drop," even as in Scripture is the doctrine of " faith by 
grace," as the leading idea — and not foreknowledge, or decree, 
or election, in the conclusions most obvious to the human facul- 
ties, as in some preachers it sometimes is. This leading idea of 
the Bible, and especially of the Epistle to the Romans, viz., that 
" the just live by faith" — all that is intended by good men, who 
would give special prominence to the doctrine of election — all 
the condemnation to man, and all the salvation from God — I 
feel, as I have said elsewhere, " to my very fingers' ends." 



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